E-cigarettes an evidence update A report commissioned by Public Health England

E-cigarettes: an evidence updateFigure 10: Smoking trends and mental health [27]E-cigarette use and different social groupsEarlier surveys in GB and internationally suggested a social gradient in the use of EC,with smokers of higher income and education being more likely to have used and tried[28, 29]. However, the 2015 ASH Smokefree GB adult 2015 survey indicated only smalldifferences across groups, with lower socioeconomic groups slightly more likely to havetried and be using EC. At the population level, 14.4% of ABC1 groups (‘non-manual’occupational groups) had tried EC compared with 19.4% in C2DE groups (‘manual’occupational groups); 4.6% of ABC1 were still using EC compared with 6.3% of C2DEgroups. Nevertheless, given the higher prevalence of smoking in C2DE groups, whenexamined within the smoker population by social class, 20.0% of ABC1 smokerscompared with 16.0% of C2DE smokers were EC current users.The STS data surveys show an increase in EC use in all social groups between 2012and 2014 (Figures 11 and 12) but at a relatively similar rate such that socioeconomicdifferences are still apparent both for current and daily use of EC.41