Pain severity and e-cigarette health literacy: the moderating role of sex

Abstract

Although electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use has increased among adults in the United States, there is still little knowledge of factors that may influence e-cigarette use or beliefs about use. Prior research suggests that health literacy plays an important role in e-cigarette beliefs, including perceived benefits and risks of e-cigarette use, as well as e-cigarette dependence. Yet, limited work has examined risk factors of poor e-cigarette health literacy. From a biopsychological perspective, sex and pain severity represent two constructs that may impact e-cigarette health literacy. To date, however, no research has investigated differences in e-cigarette health literacy across pain, sex, or their interrelation. Thus, the present study was conducted to evaluate the interactive effect of pain severity and sex on e-cigarette health literacy. Participants included 319 current, adult e-cigarette users (60.5% female, Mage = 36.82 years, SD = 10.62). Findings supported a significant pain by sex interaction, such that pain related to e-cigarette health literacy among women ( b = .10, SE = .03, P < .001), but not men ( b = .01, SE = .03, P = .60). The present findings suggest that pain may uniquely impact the degree to which women, but not men, seek and understand information on e-cigarettes.

Pain interference and cognitive processes of e-cigarette use: The differential effect of sex.

“…However, inspection of the form of the interactions indicated that the effect of pain interference on perceived barriers for quitting e-cigarettes, perceived risks of e-cigarettes, and negative expectancies of using e-cigarettes was more pronounced among male e-cigarette users as opposed to female e-cigarette users. Extending prior work on pain severity and e-cigarette use (Smit, Olofsson, et al, 2019; Zvolensky et al, 2019), these data provide preliminary evidence for potentially substantive sex differences in the relation between pain interference and cognitive processes of e-cigarette use and behavior.…”

“…Other work has found that the relation between pain severity and e-cigarette outcomes may quantifiably differ as a function of other psychological constructs (such as greater affective vulnerability; Zvolensky et al, 2019) and demographic variables (Smit, Garey, et al, 2019). Indeed, extant research has found that pain severity is related to higher e-cigarette-specific health literacy among female e-cigarette users, but not male e-cigarette users (Smit, Olofsson, et al, 2019), suggesting that pain differentially influences seeking out information about e-cigarettes across men and women.…”

The attitude towards E-cigarettes, disengagement belief, E-cigarette health literacy and susceptibility among youths and adolescents

“…The e-cigarette health literacy reflects the capability to search, understand and utilize relevant information of e-cigarettes to make decisions (Smit et al, 2019). The high-level e-cigarette health literacy of youths and adolescents means that they have a higher risk perception of e-cigarettes and have sufficient knowledge of the relevant health risk of e-cigarettes.…”

“…Pollution is just as unhealthy There are lots of risks in life Everything is unhealthy You have to die of something Everyone acts unhealthy sometimes Not everyone gets sick smoking Know heavy smokers that lived long Medical science will invent something Rather a short/good life than a long/boring life If it were really bad, it would be forbidden I live healthy otherwise Health is not the only thing in life E-cigarette health literacy (Smit et al, 2019) (1 = Probably Not -7 = Probably Yes)…”

“…The e-cigarette health literacy is very likely to act as the information cues to affect the cognitive response to outside stimuli for youths and adolescents. The e-cigarette health literacy reflects the capability to search, understand and utilize relevant information about e-cigarettes to make decisions (Smit et al, 2019). For youths and adolescents with the high-level e-cigarette health literacy, their higher risk perception of e-cigarettes and sufficient knowledge of the harm of e-cigarettes makes them more likely to constrain their tendency to experience disengagement belief, thereby reducing the likelihood of the actual use of e-cigarettes in future (i.e., e-cigarette susceptibility).…”