A qualitative analysis of IQOS usage patterns among tobacco users in the Czech Republic

Background: Tobacco and nicotine contained in it belongs to the substances with the highest addiction potential. The harmfulness of conventional cigarettes is a publicly known fact, and this is one of the reasons why producers are trying to market other tobacco alternatives. One of them is heated tobacco IQOS, which has only recently appeared on the market in the Czech Republic. IQOS users are an unexplored and unspecified social group whose patterns of use and characteristics are not adequately described in terms of expertise. Aims: The primary objective of the study was to describe the typical patterns of IQOS use among tobacco users in the Czech Republic, who left smoking conventional cigarettes and converted to the use of heated tobacco. The secondary objectives were to describe the characteristics of IQOS use, users' paraphernalia relationships, motivation to convert to the IQOS and the development of patterns of use over a two-month period. Methods: Qualitative research methods were used. The respondents were recruited by the method of deliberate selection together with the snowball method. Participants were recruited via social networks; the process of data creation was done through semi- structured interviews and online survey using two waves design. The research group consisted of 10..