The Oxford Dictionaries selected \u00e2\u20ac\u0153vape\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201cas in, to smoke from an electronic cigarette\u00e2\u20ac\u201cas word of the year in 2014. It turns out that Internet users\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 search behavior tells a similar story. <\/p>\n
Between 2009 and 2015, the number of people in the United States seeking information online about vaping rose dramatically, according to a recent study co-led by San Diego State University Internet health expert John W. Ayers and University of North Carolina tobacco control expert Rebecca S. Williams as a part of the Internet Tobacco Vendors Study. <\/p>\n
One finding from the story of particular concern to health officials and researchers is that when it comes to vaping, people are by and large searching for information on how and where to get vaping products, not for information on quitting cigarette smoking or the health effects of vaping.<\/p>\n
E-cigarettes and other hand-held vaporizers began appearing on American shelves in the mid-2000s. Since then, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve quickly risen in popularity while regulators have been slow to adapt smoking legislation to account for these devices. <\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Big Tobacco has largely taken over the e-cigarette industry. Alongside unchecked marketing and advertising, e-cigarettes have exploded online,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Ayers said.<\/p>\n
Internet users\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 search history bears this out. Ayers, Williams, and a team of colleagues from across the country examined search history from Google Trends, which includes statistics on what specific words people searched for, the search term\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s popularity relative to all other concurrent searches in a specified time, date and geographic location. From this data, the researchers can find patterns that point to Internet searchers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 apparent preferences and attitudes.<\/p>\n
When they looked at searches related to e-cigarettes starting in 2009, they found a sharply rising trend through 2015 with no end in sight. For example, in 2014 there were about 8.5 million e-cigarette-related Google searches. For 2015, their model forecasts an increase in these searchers of about 62-percent.<\/p>\n
Looking at geographic data, they found that e-cigarette searches have diffused across the nation, suggesting that e-cigarettes have become a widespread cultural phenomenon in every U.S. state. Over the same time period, searches for e-cigarettes far outpaced other \u00e2\u20ac\u0153smoking alternatives\u00e2\u20ac\u009d such as snus (smokeless tobacco) or nicotine gum or patches. <\/p>\n
The researchers published their findings today in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine<\/em>. (Note: this URL will be active after the embargo lifts)<\/p>\n What most concerns the researchers, though, is that when people search for e-cigarette information, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re using search terms like: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153best e-cig,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153buy vapes\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153shop vaping.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153One of the most surprising findings of this study was that searches for where to buy e-cigarettes outpaced searches about health concerns or smoking cessation,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Williams said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Despite what the media and e-cigarette industry might have you believe, there is little research evidence to support the notion that e-cigarettes are safe or an effective tool to help smokers quit. Given that, we think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s revealing that there were fewer searches about safety and cessation topics than about shopping.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n In fact, she said, searches for e-cigarette safety concerns represented less than 1 percent of e-cigarette searches, and this number has declined over the past two years.<\/p>\n A linguistic trend also emerged from the study. The term \u00e2\u20ac\u0153vaping\u00e2\u20ac\u009d has quickly overtaken \u00e2\u20ac\u0153e-cigarettes\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as the preferred nomenclature in the United States. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important for health officials and researchers to recognize, the team noted. Surveillance of smoking trends is done primarily through surveys and questionnaires, and knowing which terms people use can affect the accuracy of this data.<\/p>\n Also, one of the major weapons anti-smoking advocacy groups have is counter-advertising. In the Internet age, advertisers look for specific keywords to target their advertisements. Knowing that more people use the term \u00e2\u20ac\u0153vaping\u00e2\u20ac\u009d than \u00e2\u20ac\u0153e-cig\u00e2\u20ac\u009d helps them be more targeted and effective, Ayers said.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Labels do matter,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Ayers said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When you call it \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcvaping,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re using a brand new word that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have the same historical baggage as \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcsmoking\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 or \u00e2\u20ac\u02dccigarette.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve relabeled it. Health campaigns need to recognize this so they can keep up.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n ###<\/p>\n The study was funded by 5R01CA169189-02, RCA173299A, and T32CA009492 from the National Cancer Institute and U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Tobacco Products. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not represent the official views of the funders. The funders had no role in the design, conduct, or interpretation of the study nor the preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript. Additional collaborators on this study included: Benjamin Althouse of the Santa Fe Institute; Jon-Patrick Allem of the University of Southern California; Eric C. Leas of the University of California, San Diego; and Mark Dredze of Johns Hopkins University.<\/p>\n \t<\/p>\n About San Diego State University<\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n San Diego State University is a major public research institution that provides transformative experiences, both inside and outside of the classroom, for its 35,000 students. The university offers bachelor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s degrees in 94 areas, master\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s degrees in 78 areas and doctorates in 22 areas. Students participate in research, international experiences, sustainability and entrepreneurship initiatives, and a broad range of student life and leadership opportunities. The university\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rich campus life features opportunities for students to participate in, and engage with, the creative and performing arts, a Division I athletics program and the vibrant cultural life of the San Diego region. For more information, visit http:\/\/www.sdsu.edu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Oxford Dictionaries selected \u00e2\u20ac\u0153vape\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201cas in, to smoke from an electronic cigarette\u00e2\u20ac\u201cas word of the year in 2014. It turns out that Internet users\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 search behavior tells a similar story. Between 2009 and 2015, the number of people in the United States seeking information online about vaping rose dramatically, according to a recent study co-led Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68594\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}