Abstract
Objectives: More than 2.5 million middle and high school students in the United States reported current use of e-cigarettes in 2022. With continued curiosity and initiation of e-cigarette use among youth, it is critical to explore new and innovative ways to communicate about the dangers of e-cigarettes. The purpose of this study was to determine youth never-user and ever-user interpretations of a novel, educational comic book, ‘The Villainous Vape’. Method: A 43-question survey was distributed to a convenience sample of middle and high school students across Kentucky. Results: Of the 76 respondents, 85.5% (n = 65) reported having never using e-cigarettes and 14.5% (n = 11) reported having tried e-cigarettes at least once in their lifetime. Never-users were more likely to say that the comic book would be an effective method of e-cigarette education for their peers, compared with ever-users. In addition, never-users were more likely to report that the comic book deterred them from using e-cigarettes. Conclusion: Further research is needed to determine how perceptions of story-based education through novel comics affect young people’s health decisions regarding e-cigarette use.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 598-608 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Health Education Journal |
| Volume | 83 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 2024 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© The Author(s) 2024.
Funding
The authors would like to thank the staff at the University of Kentucky Center for Clinical and Translational Science for their support and Bryan Sanders for his creativity and illustrations. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This project was supported by the US NIH National Centre for Advancing Translational Sciences through grant number UL1TR001998. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH or the US Government. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This project was supported by the US NIH National Centre for Advancing Translational Sciences through grant number UL1TR001998. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH or the US Government.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| University of Kentucky, Center for Clinical and Translational Science | |
| National Institutes of Health (NIH) | |
| National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) | UL1TR001998 |
| National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) |
Keywords
- Comic-book
- e-cigarette
- education
- perception
- youth
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Health(social science)
- Education