E-cigarette use among students and e-cigarette specialty retailer presence near schools

Objective: This study examined the association between presence of e-cigarette specialty retailers near schools and e-cigarette use among middle and high school students in Orange County (OC), CA. Methods: The OC subsample of the 2013-2014 California Healthy Kids Survey (N=67,701) was combined with geocoded e-cigarette retailers to determine whether a retailer was present within one-quarter mile of each public school in OC. Multilevel logistic regression models evaluated individual-level and school-level e-cigarette use correlates among middle and high school students. Results: Among middle school students, the presence of an e-cigarette retailer within one-quarter mile of their school predicted lifetime e-cigarette use (OR=1.70, 95% C/=1.02, 2.83), controlling for confounders but no effect for current use. No significant effect was found for high school students. Conclusions: E-cigarette specialty retailers clustered around schools may be an environmental influence on student e-cigarette experimentation.