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detailed breakdown of the survey’s design and sampling procedure can be found on the Statistics Canada website [33]. For the purposes of this study, only individuals who reported being 15–24 years of age were included. The total sample comprised of 10,322 individuals, representing approximately 4,443,600 Canadians of ages 15–24. The average age of the respondents was 19.5 years, whereas the median age was 20 years. Additionally, 48.6% of the sample were females and 51.4% were males. Main outcome. The main outcome of the study was ‘e-cigarette use’. This was measured based on the following question: “In the past 30 days did you use an electronic cigarette, also known as an e-cigarette?” The respondents were provided with the following options, “Yes”, “No”. CovariatesThe main independent variables for this study included, substance use variables comprising of alcohol use in the past 12 months (asked by the question, ‘How often did you drink alcoholic beverages during the past 12 months’ with ‘Never’ recoded as ‘no’ and any alcohol use recoded as ‘yes’), marijuana (asked by the question ‘During the past 12 months have you used marijuana?’ yes or no), and illicit drug use (including cocaine, speed/meth, ecstasy, hallucinogens, salvia, heroin, inhalants, abuse of pain relievers, stimulants and sedatives to get high in the past 12 months, assessed using questions asking participants whether they had used a specific substance in the past 12 months, yes or no). Tobacco use variables included household smoking (asked by the question, ‘Do you/Does anyone in your household smoke cigarettes? Yes or No) current smoking status (variable created by Statistics Canada based on multiple questions), and other tobacco products (comprised of use of either cigarillos, cigars, tobacco water pipe or smoke-less tobacco in the past 30 days, assessed using questions asking participants whether they had used any of the above specified tobacco products in the past 30 days, yes or no). In addition, a wide range of covariates including demographic and health factors, and tobacco exposure variables, were considered. Demographic and health factors included age, sex, province, indigenous status (asked by the question ‘Are you an Aboriginal person, that is, First Nations, Métis or Inuk (Inuit)?’) , community dwelling (rural or urban), current employment (asked by the question ‘Last week, did you work at a job or business?’), and self-perceived health (asked by the question ‘In general, would you say your health is...?’ Additional variables considered in the analysis also included whether nicotine was present in the last e-cigarette used, frequency of using e-cigarette (everyday, occasionally or not at all) and reasons for using e-cigarettes.Descriptive statistics of the main outcome and other variables were conducted. Odds Ratios (ORs) and 95% Confidence Intervals (CIs) were obtained using bivariate and multivariable logistic regression. When all the variables were considered, a maximum of 3.16% of the cases had missing information. These cases were excluded from the analysis. Population weights were applied to each calculated estimate and bootstrapping was performed to adjust for the complex sampling methodology [33]. All analyses were conducted using Stata Statistical Software, version 13, (StataCorp, College Station, TX). Statistical significance for all analyses was set at alpha < 0.05.The total sample was comprised of 10,322 individuals representing approximately 4,443,600 Canadians aged 15–24 years. Among them, 6.2% reported having used e-cigarettes in the past 30-days, while 23.9% reported having ever tried e-cigarettes. Approximately 3.16% of the respondents did not provide information on at least one of the covariates and were excluded from the regression analysis. Among the past 30-day users, 23.1% reported using e-cigarettes every day, whereas 57.7% reported using e-cigarettes occasionally (Table (Table1).1). Furthermore, 72.5% of the past month users reported having nicotine in their last e-cigarette. Additionally, some of the main reasons for using e-cigarettes in the past 30-days included, “They come in flavors I like” (63.5% past 30-day users and 42.4% ever users), “Curious- want to know how it tastes” (57.7% past 30-day users and 75.5% in ever users), “E-cigarettes are more acceptable to non-tobacco users” (44.9% in past 30-day users and 29.2% in ever users), “They might be less harmful to people around me than cigarettes” (54.8% in past 30-day users and 33.3% in ever users), and “They might be less harmful to me than smoking cigarettes” (54.0% in past 30-day users and 32.8% in ever users). Finally, among past 30-days users, over 49.8% reported getting e-cigarettes from friends and relatives and 32.9% reported getting them from a vape shop or vapor lounge. Other places where e-
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