Tobacco Poster Session: E-Cigarette Use

Author: Jessica Seymore | Majors: Public Health, Biology | Semester: Fall 2023

The research presentation that I co-presented on at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting was titled “Social Influences on Quitting E-Cigarette Use: A Mixed Method Analysis”. We presented our findings that young adults with greater social support were more likely to have tried to quit using e-cigarettes than those who had less social support.

I presented at the Annual Public Health Association Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia at the Georgia World Congress Center. This conference allowed members of the Health Equity and Addictions Lab to present our findings of the impact on social support on quitting e-cigarettes. Our poster presentation allowed us to speak with many other Public Health Professionals from across the country about e-cigarette use among young adults. This trip will help us to move forward with our research with new perspectives about the importance of social support. When we develop our thematic analysis for our project, we will be able to reflect on the conversations we had with other public health professionals at APHA.

At this conference, we were asked questions about which types of social support (friends, family, or peers) would be most beneficial for quitting e-cigarettes. Although we did not test which types of social support would be most helpful, we may use this feedback for further e-cigarette research. Many of the professionals who stopped by our presentation were very intrigued by our research and gave us positive feedback. This trip greatly contributed to my professional development, because I was able to network with many post-graduate schools. I was able to meet with many schools from across the country, and ask questions about their degree programs.

This conference allowed me to meet other presenters in our poster presentation session who are involved in research on e-cigarettes. One individual has a colleague who is developing an e-cigarette cessation app, which will be greatly useful for providing support to those attempting to quit e-cigarettes. We believe that our research helps to show the importance in implementing these types of social support cessation programs. This experience taught me about the importance of networking with other individuals during presentations. At this conference, there were individuals from across the nation who had very similar interests on e-cigarette research. I learned about the importance of sharing ideas with others who have similar interests, because it creates new ideas to be implemented into further research.

If a student has the opportunity to attend a conference similar to the APHA Annual Meeting, I would highly recommend researching different individuals and programs who will be in attendance, and making a list of which groups you would like to interact with. At many conferences, there will be a expo map or presentations guide that shows each presenter, workshop, vendor, etc. Using this method, I was able to develop a plan of which individuals that I wanted to talk to, which allowed me to maximize my experience. My next phase of my research will be developing a thematic analysis on distress and dependence on young adults who use e-cigarettes.