Prospective predictors of flavored e-cigarette use: A one-year longitudinal study of young adults in the U.S

•About 8% of young adults in the U.S. used e-cigarettes during 2014–2015.•About 69% of e-cigarette users used non-tobacco and non-menthol (NTM) flavors.•Young age, female sex, marijuana use, and never smoking predicted NTM flavor use.•Harm of flavored e-cigarettes needs to be highlighted among high risk populations. E-cigarettes with fruit and candy flavors are appealing among young adults. This study examined the prospective predictors of young adults’ flavored e-cigarette use to inform regulation and prevention efforts. We used the wave 1 (2013–2014) and wave 2 (2014–2015) data of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study, a nationally representative cohort study of U.S. youth and adults. We analyzed a sample of young adults aged 18–34 (n = 12,383) to identify wave 1 prospective predictors (i.e., socio-demographic characteristics, mental health symptoms, marijuana use, tobacco use, and e-cigarette harm perceptions) of wave 2 flavored e-cigarette use. At wave 2, 8.0% of young adults used e-cigarettes, and 2.5% and 5.5% used tobacco and menthol (TM) and non-tobacco and non-menthol flavors (NTM) flavors, respectively. In the multivariable model, significant prospective predictors (wave 1) of NTM flavored e-cigarette use compared to TM flavored e-cigarette use (wave 2) were younger age (18–24 years) (AOR = 1.82, p