Employing Data-Driven Techniques to Explore the Lay Public's Health Concerns with Vaping E-Cigarettes

Researchers analyzed over 10 million posts from the largest online forum dedicated to e-cigarettes from 2008 to April 2022 to identify public health concerns about vaping. Using data-driven techniques, they found that 53.4% of words most associated with posts about health risks were health-relevant. The most frequently mentioned health problem was lipoid pneumonia (5.9% of posts), followed by pneumonia (4.1%) and nausea (2.7%). Health concerns primarily related to the respiratory system (23.7%), gastrointestinal tract (12.7%), and cardiovascular system (8.5%). Other concerns included neurological, dermatological, oral health, sexual health, psychiatric, oncologic, addiction, and sleep problems. This method enables routine analysis of social media and identification of emerging public health concerns.