title: Vape, quit, tweet? Electronic cigarettes and smoking cessation on Twitter.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Individuals seeking information about electronic cigarettes are increasingly turning to social media networks like Twitter. We surveyed dominant Twitter communications about e-cigarettes and smoking cessation, examining message sources, themes, and attitudes.
  
  
  METHODS
  Tweets from 2014 were searched for mentions of e-cigarettes and smoking cessation. A purposive sample was subjected to mixed-methods analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twitter communication about e-cigarettes increased fivefold since 2012. In a sample of 300 tweets from high-authority users, attitudes about e-cigarettes as smoking cessation aids were favorable across user types (industry, press, public figures, fake accounts, and personal users), except for public health professionals, who lacked consensus and contributed negligibly to the conversation. The most prevalent message themes were marketing, news, and first-person experiences with e-cigarettes as smoking cessation aids. We identified several industry strategies to reach Twitter users.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings show that Twitter users are overwhelmingly exposed to messages that favor e-cigarettes as smoking cessation aids, even when disregarding commercial activity. This underlines the need for effective public health engagement with social media to provide reliable information about e-cigarettes and smoking cessation online.
authors: Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Toronto, Canada. jan.vandertempel@mail.utoronto.ca.|Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada. jan.vandertempel@mail.utoronto.ca.
authors: Jan
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7394-5836
authors: J
authors: van der Tempel
authors: Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Toronto, Canada.|Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada.
authors: Aliya
authors: A
authors: Noormohamed
authors: Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Toronto, Canada.|Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada.
authors: Robert
authors: R
authors: Schwartz
authors: Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Toronto, Canada.
authors: Cameron
authors: C
authors: Norman
authors: Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Toronto, Canada.
authors: Muhannad
authors: M
authors: Malas
authors: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada.
authors: Laurie
authors: L
authors: Zawertailo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003132:Commerce; D066300:Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D058015:Health Communication; D006801:Humans; D040541:Marketing / Q000379:methods; D011634:Public Health; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000379:methods*; D061108:Social Media / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000072137:Vaping / Q000639:trends*
keywords: Electronic cigarettes; Smoking cessation; Social media; Twitter