Survey Approach and Findings

An online approach was used with respondents contacted via Kantar’s consumer panel and screening questions were used to ensure participants met agreed definitions for target groups in each country. A total of 1001 people were interviewed in Taiwan.

Survey recruitment was based solely on e-cigarettes usage, so all respondents were vapers. Among them more than a third used a heated tobacco product (38%) and/or used an oral tobacco product (36%).

Questions covered a range of topics including current usage and perceptions of products including attitudes towards quitting smoking and methods used to help giving up.

Vaping alone was used as a way to cut down on smoking by as much as 25% of respondents and after trying to quit smoking on several occasions. However, the most common approach used in these previous attempts was without any medication or substitute. As many as 34% use any replacement product to cut down the amount smoked and 18% will use ANY replacement product to stop smoking entirely.

All in all, while vaping is, on balance, more likely to receive approval from peers and family than smoking cigarettes or using heated or oral tobacco products, it is notable that many vapers still expect to receive disapproval for using e-cigarettes.

There is a need for risk - proportionate regulations for e-cigarettes, in particular focusing on quality and usage by minors, as well as a correction of misinformation related to any over-perceived harms of vaping and nicotine.

To read the summary report, click HERE.