E-cigarette Use and Smoking Cessation Among South Korean Adult Smokers: A Propensity Score–Matching Approach

Abstract

Research on the efficacy of e-cigarette use as a smoking cessation tool has yielded inconclusive results. Hence, the objective of this study was to identify the relationship between e-cigarette use and smoking cessation among South Korean adult smokers. This study used data from the sixth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2013-2015) of 2965 adult smokers aged 19 years and older. As statistical analysis methods, data were analyzed using the χ2 test and multiple logistic regression. Propensity score matching (PSM) was applied to control selection bias, and sociodemographic and smoking-linked factors were used as covariates in PSM. According to the multiple logistic regression analysis, adult smokers who had not used e-cigarettes were more likely to attempt to quit smoking than those who had used e-cigarettes in the prematching (OR = 1.58; 95% CI = 1.18-2.12) and postmatching (OR = 1.62; 95% CI = 1.08-2.44) samples. Thus, this study suggests that e-cigarette use among South Korean adult smokers was not related to smoking cessation.