Study Says Online Advertisements of E-Cigarettes Very Influencial to Teens

The campaign against smoking made smokers turn to using alternative ways like nicotine patches, gums, and e-cigarette. Since then, many forms of e-cigarette ads have been known to increase the risks that teens will try the device. A new study believes that today's generation of digital natives is influenced by the ads.

Reuters reported that big U.S. tobacco companies have been developing e-cigarettes. E-cigs are battery-powered gadgets that feature a glowing tip and a heating element which turns liquid nicotine and other flavoring into vapor users inhale. Tushar Singh from the Office on Smoking and Health, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said that the research was done to determine which e-cigarette ad formats were most influential to teens.

For the study, researchers analyzed data which was from a recent nationwide survey involving 22,000 middle school and high school students from grades 6 until 12 with ages between 12 to 18 years old. They found that middle school students who see online ads are three times more at risk to start using e-cigarettes compared to those who have not seen e-cigarette advertisements. While high school students showed twice as much to use the device.

According to Tech Times, Dr. Tushar Singh said that e-cigarette ads use many of the same themes as those used to sell cigarettes and other normal tobacco products like independence, rebellion and sex. "The situation is compounded by the fact that e-cigarette online vendors are using social network services to market their products - and many online vendor websites are very easy for youth to enter and make purchases," Singh added by email.

Results showed that middle-school teens who frequently see newspaper ads have an 87 percent chance of actually using the device, while high school students are 71 percent most likely to start using e-cigarettes. The device's promotions on TV and movies seen by middle schoolers influence them by at least 80 percent.

Researchers also found a 54 percent influence on high schoolers who have seen ads on line, and a whopping 91 percent influence on ads seen in stores compared with their group of friends or teens with the same age as them who never saw cigarette ads.

CDC advises that health care providers must provide information-dissemination on dangers of smoking tobacco and e-cigarettes. He also advises parents to watch over what their kids could see over the Internet and discuss its effects to them.