Vaping – effectiveness of advertising restrictions and role of advertising and free distribution in uptake

Methodology

This evidence briefing is based on a search and analysis of scholarly research on the effectiveness of advertising restrictions of vaping products, and on the association between exposure to advertising/free distribution of vaping products and intention to take up vaping or subsequent vaping uptake. Research that only focussed on an association between exposure and use was excluded, as this could be due to vapers noticing adverts more often compared to non-users due to personal interest.

The search was carried out between March 2023 and April 2024 and was conducted in collaboration with Public Health Scotland on a number of search engines: KandE (a Scottish Government resource covering several databases), Google Scholar, PubMed, Science Direct, Medline and Embase. It included the following terms: “ENDS”, “e-cigarettes”, “vapes”, “vaping”, “effectiveness”, “impact”, “effects”, “restrictions”, “restricting”, “advertising”, “advertisements”, “marketing”, “social media”, “free distribution”, “free samples”, “giveaways”.

Research conducted in countries culturally comparable to the UK (e.g. USA, European countries, Australia) has been included despite variations in policy approaches to vaping products.

Seventy-seven papers/reports were selected and reviewed. Research funded by the tobacco industry, opinion pieces and editorials were excluded. A few systematic reviews and meta-analyses/ethnographies have been identified and have been prioritised in the analysis. Additionally, a number of both quantitative and qualitative primary studies have been incorporated. No critical appraisal of the evidence they examined was undertaken.

In this briefing we make reference to ‘vaping products’ to describe both nicotine and non-nicotine devices used to inhale an aerosol. The sources analysed adopt different terms and definitions. For accuracy and in order to preserve the original meaning, the terminology chosen by the authors of each review/study has been retained when summarising their findings.