An Examination of Electronic Cigarette Content on Social Media: Analysis of E-Cigarette Flavor Content on Reddit

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Lei Wang³  Yongcheng Zhan⁴  Qiudan Li¹  Daniel D. Zeng⁴  Scott J. Leischow²  Janet Okamoto²  Coral Gartner⁵ 

[1] The State Key Laboratory of Management and Control for Complex Systems, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China;Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ 85259, USA; E-Mails:;College of Management and Economics, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China; E-Mail:;Department of Management Information Systems, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA; E-Mails:;College of Management and Economics, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China; E-Mail

关键词: e-cigarette flavor;    social media;    Reddit;    e-juice;    e-liquid;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijerph121114916

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

In recent years, the emerging electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) marketplace has shown great development prospects all over the world. Reddit, one of the most popular forums in the world, has a very large user group and thus great influence. This study aims to gain a systematic understanding of e-cigarette flavors based on data collected from Reddit. Flavor popularity, mixing, characteristics, trends, and brands are analyzed. Fruit flavors were mentioned the most (n = 15,720) among all the posts and were among the most popular flavors (n = 2902) used in mixed blends. Strawberry and vanilla flavors were the most popular for e-juice mixing. The number of posts discussing e-cigarette flavors has increased sharply since 2014. Mt. Baker Vapor and Hangen were the most popular brands discussed among users. Information posted on Reddit about e-cigarette flavors reflected consumers’ interest in a variety of flavors. Our findings suggest that Reddit could be used for data mining and analysis of e-cigarette-related content. Understanding how e-cigarette consumers’ view and utilize flavors within their vaping experience and how producers and marketers use social media to promote flavors and sell products could provide valuable information for regulatory decision-makers.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.