Introduction:

research into drug consumption agrees on the relationship between the perception of the risk associated with the consumption of a substance and the probability of consuming it. Objective: To find out the perception of danger in the occasional consumption of conventional and electronic cigarettes in adolescents aged between 13 and 18 attending school in Castile & Leon (academic year 2014-2015), as well as their relation with other sociodemographic factors.

Material and methods:

a standardized, telematic and anonymous questionnaire was used with analogous questions to those used in national and international programmes to discover the risk perception concerning the consumption of drugs among adolescents. A descriptive, cross-sectional study with a random, two-stage cluster sample was also used. A probability of 50% was estimated in all our answers, with a confidence interval of 95.5% and an error probability in bilateral contrast of 1.7%. The final sample was made up of 3,311 adolescents (mean age 14.8±1.3 years).

Results:

we found a high perception of risk for the occasional consumption of tobacco among adolescents (74.3% considering it very dangerous, n = 2458). However, with the electronic cigarette there is a lower perception of risk (only 65.9% considered it to be very dangerous), with no statistically significant differences in relation to age or family functionality (p < 0.005 respectively). Women (odds ratio: 1.28) and adolescents from public centres (p ≤ 0.01 respectively) show a lower perception of danger.

Conclusions:

the e-cigarettes could become an additional way of initiatiating tobacco smoking in adolescents due to their accessibility, their attractive flavours and the low perception of danger associated with their consumption in early adolescence.

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