BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Education and Promotion
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1620863
Correlates of Perceived Social Unacceptability of Vaping among Regular E-cigarette Users: A Cross-sectional Study of a Sample of Middle Eastern Countries
Provisionally accepted
- Qatar University, Doha, Qatar
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Aim: To examine the association between the social unacceptability of vaping and the main correlate, country of residence, as well as other sociodemographic variables in three Middle Eastern countries. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey study of a convenience sample of regular vapers in Middle Eastern countries was recruited. Recruitment took place through paid advertisements on social media, regular e-cigarette users, completed an online survey. Vapers responded to socio-demographic and social unacceptability questions. Ordinal logistic regression was used for analysis. Results: N=428 vapers completed the survey. Male vapers and vapers who currently smoke had lower odds for social unacceptability perceptions relative to females and never smoker counterparts. Vapers in Qatar, experiencing pressure to vape from friends, encountering negative effects, and mod and e-cigarette use was associated with higher odds of social unacceptability perceptions relative to vapers in Egypt, not experiencing pressure from friends, not encountering negative effects, and pod use respectively. Conclusion: Relative to vapers in Egypt, those in Qatar reported higher social unacceptability levels, likely due to restrictive legislations, and calls for similar restrictions in Egypt. More awareness is needed to increase social unacceptability among vapers who are males and current smokers. Highlighting potential negative effects from vaping in education campaigns and regulatory restrictions on pod design (compact, sleek, and concealable features) may help increase the social unacceptability of vaping.
Keywords: electronic cigarettes, vaping, social unacceptability, pressure by friends, Middle East
Received: 01 May 2025; Accepted: 29 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Almuraikhi, Chokor and Al-Hamdani. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Mohammed Al-Hamdani, malhamdani@qu.edu.qa
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