Introduction

E-cigarette use has increased rapidly over the last 10 years, mostly among smokers and ex-smokers. Although there may be some degree of dependency on nicotine via e-cigarette use, the nature of this dependency is poorly understood. The aim of this paper is to use tasks from behavioural economics to compare the value that smokers place on tobacco cigarettes to the value that vapers place on e-cigarettes.

Method

Exclusive current smokers (n = 25) and vapers (n = 20) attended one session where they completed the Cigarette/e-cigarette Dependence Scale, the Cigarette/e-cigarette Purchasing Task (CPT) and the Concurrent Choice Task (CCT). The CPT requires participants to indicate how many puffs of their chosen product they would purchase at increasing price points. The CCT requires participants to choose between earning a money point or a point towards a cigarette/e-cigarette after being presented with a neutral, money or cigarette/e-cigarette cue.

Results

Overall scores on the self-report scales suggest a comparable level of dependency between smokers and vapers. The CPT revealed that vapers are more sensitive than smokers to escalating costs as consumption declined as costs increased. On the CCT, when primed with money, vapers showed a decrease in choosing e-cigarettes.

Conclusion

These findings suggest that, on behavioural economic tasks, tobacco cigarettes have a higher relative value than e-cigarettes. Vapers appear to place a lower limit on what they will spend to access e-cigarettes and more readily choose money over e-cigarette puffs when primed by money cues.

中文翻译：

---

与吸烟者相比，Vapers表现出相似的主观尼古丁依赖性，但尼古丁补强值较低

介绍

在过去10年中，电子烟的使用量迅速增加，主要是在吸烟者和前吸烟者中。尽管通过使用电子烟可能对尼古丁有一定程度的依赖性，但这种依赖性的性质了解得很少。本文的目的是使用行为经济学中的任务，将吸烟者在香烟上的价值与vapers在电子烟上的价值进行比较。

方法

当前的独家吸烟者（n = 25）和吸烟者（n = 20）参加了一个会议，他们完成了卷烟/电子烟依赖量表，卷烟/电子烟购买任务（CPT）和并发选择任务（CCT）。CPT要求参与者指出他们将以递增的价格购买多少泡芙。CCT要求参与者在获得中性，金钱或香烟/电子烟提示后，在赚钱点数或赚取香烟/电子烟点数之间进行选择。

结果

自我报告量表的总分表明，吸烟者和吸烟者之间的依存度相当。CPT披露，随着消费量随着成本的增加而下降，与吸烟者相比，vapers更加敏感。在CCT上，用金钱装满水时，vapers显示选择电子烟的人数有所减少。

结论

这些发现表明，在行为经济任务上，香烟比电子香烟具有更高的相对价值。Vapers似乎对他们使用电子烟的花费设定了一个较低的限制，并且在受到提示的影响时，选择电子烟而不是使用电子烟更容易。