JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

On May 18, 2020, the New York State Department of Health implemented a statewide flavor ban to prohibit the sales of all flavored vapor products, except for tobacco flavor and any authorized flavored product.

Objective:

This research aims to investigate the discussion changes in e-cigarettes-related tweets over time with the implementation of the New York State flavor ban.

Methods:

Through Twitter streaming API, 59,883 e-cigarette-related tweets were collected within the New York State during February 6, 2020 - May 17, 2020 (period one, before implementation of the New York state flavor ban), May 18, 2020 - June 30, 2020 (period two, between the implementation of the New York state flavor ban and the online sale ban), July 1, 2020 - September 15, 2020 (period three, the short term after the online sale ban), and September 16, 2020 - November 30, 2020 (period four, the long term after the online sale ban). Sentiment analysis and topic modeling were conducted to investigate the changes in public attitudes and discussions in e-cigarette-related tweets. The popularity of different e-cigarette flavor categories was compared before and after implementing the New York state flavor ban.

Results:

Our results showed that the proportion of e-cigarette-related tweets with negative sentiment significantly decreased (32.5% vs. 26.67%, P < 0.001), and tweets with positive sentiment significantly increased (39.6% vs. 48.69%, P < 0.001) in period four compared to period three. “teens and nicotine products” was the most discussed e-cigarette-related topic in negative tweets. In contrast, “nicotine products and quitting” was more prevalent in positive tweets. The proportion of tweets mentioning mint and menthol flavors significantly increased right after the flavor ban and decreased to lower levels over time. The proportions of fruit and sweets flavors were the most frequently mentioned in period one, decreased in period two, and dominated again in period four.

Conclusions:

The proportion of e-cigarette-related tweets with different attitudes and frequently discussed flavor categories changed over time after the implementation of the New York State flavor ban. This change indicated a potential impact of the New York State flavor ban on public discussions of flavored e-cigarettes.