{"doi":"10.1093/ntr/ntab053","title":"Perceptions of Tobacco Product-Specific COVID-19 Risk and Changes in Tobacco Use Behaviors Among Smokers, E-Cigarette Users, and Dual Users","abstract":"INTRODUCTION: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a public health crisis, but its effects on tobacco users remain ill-defined. This report aimed to assess the relationship between tobacco product-specific risk perceptions for COVID-19 and changes in tobacco use since the start of the pandemic. METHODS: A sample (n = 776) of past-30 day exclusive smokers (n = 238), exclusive e-cigarette users (n = 143), and dual users (n = 395) residing in the US and aged 18 or older were collected using Mechanical Turk from April 27 to June 8, 2020. Adjusted associations between tobacco product-specific COVID-19 risk perceptions (ie risk that smokers/vapers are at for COVID-19 relative to non-smokers/non-vapers) and changes in tobacco use since the pandemic began were assessed using partial proportional odds models. RESULTS: A majority of those who used cigarettes (63.7%) and e-cigarettes (56.1%) felt that the risk of COVID-19 was greater for users of their tobacco product than for non-users. Twenty-four percent of smokers had increased their cigarette use since the start of the pandemic and 28.0% had decreased. Similarly, 27.3% of e-cigarette users had increased their e-cigarette use since the start of the pandemic and 23.8% had decreased. Higher risk perceptions for COVID-19 were associated with reductions in tobacco use since the pandemic began for exclusive e-cigarette users and dual users. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide the support that tobacco product-specific COVID-19 risk perceptions may be an important correlate of changes in tobacco use during the pandemic. Targeted information to inform tobacco users regarding their risks for COVID-19 is needed during this public health crisis. IMPLICATIONS: Few published studies have investigated the relationship between tobacco product-specific risk perceptions for COVID-19 and changes in tobacco product use since the pandemic began. This study enhances the current literature by providing evidence that higher tobacco product-specific risk perceptions for COVID-19 are associated with reductions in tobacco use since the pandemic began for exclusive e-cigarette users and dual users of cigarettes and e-cigarettes. Additionally, daily tobacco users may be more likely to have increased their tobacco use than non-daily users. These findings emphasize the importance of disseminating targeted health information to tobacco users regarding COVID-19 risks.","journal":"Nicotine & Tobacco Research","year":2021,"id":156212,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":55,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9474,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":278344,"name":"Dongmei Li","orcid":"0000-0001-9140-2483","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":660289,"name":"L. Morgan Snell","orcid":"0000-0001-6121-2523","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":326026,"name":"Richard J. O’Connor","orcid":"0000-0003-0644-182X","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":432748,"name":"Cosima Hoetger","orcid":"0000-0002-1858-2489","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":326717,"name":"Daniel P. Croft","orcid":"0000-0002-1990-5542","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":445266,"name":"Rebecca Lester","orcid":"0000-0003-0923-0630","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":304183,"name":"Scott McIntosh","orcid":"0000-0002-5776-9617","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":661106,"name":"Megan Underwood","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":509494,"name":"Liane M. Schneller","orcid":"0000-0002-9575-2672","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":336194,"name":"Alison Breland","orcid":"0000-0001-8949-2395","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":432752,"name":"Andrew J. Barnes","orcid":"0000-0002-0357-3934","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":432753,"name":"Caroline O. Cobb","orcid":"0000-0003-3258-252X","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":326718,"name":"Deborah J. Ossip","orcid":"0000-0003-2918-597X","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":660288,"name":"Augustus M White","orcid":"0000-0001-7794-1253","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":22,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:44:08.368845Z","pmid":"33782707","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}