Young people’s experiences of vaping in their community: a co-created study between embedded researchers and local authority public health practitioners

Aim:

This qualitative study aimed to investigate how young people understand vaping among their peers to directly inform practice within a Local Authority (LA) public health team in the North of England.

Method:

The study was undertaken using a co-creation model of qualitative research between LA practitioners and Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC) embedded researchers. The study team collaboratively planned and collected data and analysed findings. Four focus groups were held with 17 young people aged between 13 and 23 years between May and August 2024. Participants were recruited from communities with reported high electronic cigarette (vape) use. Data analysis was informed by Braun and Clarke’s reflexive thematic analysis approach.

Results:

Results suggest the importance of friendship groups, social media, mental wellbeing and family in the prevalence of youth vaping, alongside the accessibility and appeal of flavours, colours, and brands of vapes. Young people identified a lack of clear information and guidance about vapes with a mixed understanding of legal frameworks. They made valuable suggestions including specialist advisors within schools, increased regulation of the accessibility and promotion of vapes, and further information about health harms.

Conclusions:

This study supports existing findings about the appeal of vapes to young people. The findings also add important knowledge about experiences of young people from a range of backgrounds where vaping has been identified as more prevalent locally and which mirrors health inequality data. Findings also highlight lack of awareness of legal frameworks and health harms of vaping products. Young people’s suggestions on support to reduce vaping point towards several policy and practice interventions for use in LA settings, including providing accurate and clear information on vape harms, enhancing support services and reducing vape access and appeal.