Reactions on Twitter towards Australia's proposed import restriction on nicotine vaping products: a thematic analysis. (19th August 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sun, Tianze; Lim, Carmen C.W.; Gartner, Coral; Connor, Jason P.; Hall, Wayne D.; Leung, Janni; Stjepanović, Daniel; Chan, Gary C.K.
• Is Part Of: Australian and New Zealand journal of public health. Volume 45:Number 6(2021)
• Page Start: 543
• Page End: 545
• Publication Date: 2021-08-19
• Subjects: e‐cigarette -- vaping -- nicotine -- Australia -- attitudes -- regulation -- policy; Public health -- Australia -- Periodicals; Public health -- New Zealand -- Periodicals; Medical care -- Australia -- Periodicals; Medical care -- New Zealand -- Periodicals; 362.10993
• DOI: 10.1111/1753-6405.13143
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1326-0200

Abstract

Abstract: Objective : In June 2020, the Australian Government announced that personal importation of nicotine vaping products (NVP) would be prohibited, pending a 12‐month classification and regulation review by the Therapeutic Goods Administration. This brief report examines the themes of responses on Twitter to this announcement. Methods : Simple random sampling was used to retrieve tweets containing keywords from 19 to 26 June 2020. Tweets were manually coded and descriptive statistics calculated for themes and policy position. Results : The vast majority of the 1, 168 tweets were anti‐policy. Themes included: criticism towards government (59.8%), activism against NVP restriction (38%), potential adverse consequences (30.8%) and support for NVP restriction (1.4%). Tweets that identified potential adverse consequences of NVP restriction cited: smoking relapse for individuals currently using NVPs (75.6%); the impact of policy enforcement (8.6%); illicit market (8.3%); panic buying (3.6%); difficulty obtaining prescriptions (2.8%); and impacts on NVP businesses (2.8%). Conclusion : Tweets predominately objected to the policy announcement. Approximately three‐quarters of tweets that cited potential adverse consequences of the policy mentioned smoking relapse as their primary concern. Implications for public health : User‐generated content on Twitter was primarily used to lobby against the proposed policy, which was subsequently amended.