Cigarette smoking and e-cigarette use among university students in New Zealand before and after nicotine-containing e-cigarettes became widely available: results from repeat cross-sectional surveys

AIM: To estimate the prevalence and patterns of smoking and vaping, and associations between smoking and vaping, among university students in New Zealand when access to nicotine-containing e-cigarettes was restricted (ie, time point 1 or T1) and 12-months after restrictions were relaxed (ie, time point 2 or T2). METHOD: Cross-sectional surveys of university students across all eight universities: T1, March 2018 (n=1,932), and T2, March 2019 (n=2,004). Chi-squared tests compared responses between T1 and T2 and logistic regression examined associations between smoking and vaping with student characteristics. RESULTS: The patterns of smoking (T1 vs T2): current (10.6% vs 12.1%, p=0.716), daily (5.0% vs 4.6%, p=0.121), and cigarettes/day, time to first cigarette, and avoidance of smoking in smoke-free spaces were not significantly different. In contrast, vaping: current (6.8% vs 13.5%, p<0.001), daily (2.7% vs 5.4%, p<0.001), and possibly vaping in smoke-free spaces, were significantly higher at T2. At both periods, males had higher odds of smoking, vaping and dual use; students aged 25-34 and long-term New Zealand residents had higher odds of vaping. Asian and Other students had lower odds of smoking at T1, and Other students had higher odds of vaping at T2. CONCLUSION: Vaping was significantly more prevalent at T2 than T1, without there being a corresponding decrease in smoking. Age, sex, student type and ethnicity predicted smoking and vaping.