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Teen e-cigarette use linked to future cigarette smoking
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Although teenagers who smoke cigarettes are not likely to use e-cigarettes later, those who smoke e-cigarettes are more likely to smoke traditional cigarettes in the future, according to findings published in Pediatrics.
Krysten W. Bold, PhD, an associate research scientist in the department of psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine, told Infectious Diseases in Children that the safety of e-cigarettes compared with traditional cigarettes continues to be debated and studied.
“On the one hand, e-cigarette advocates say that the product is much safer than traditional cigarettes and may help adult smokers wean off smoking,” she said. “At the same time, there are concerns about e-cigarette use among youth. There are several studies showing that e-cigarettes are really appealing to youth, and these are products that youth are trying which may lead to future combustible tobacco product use.”
To assess adolescent cigarette use within the past month and the longitudinal connection to future cigarette use, Bold and colleagues administered a survey that included 808 students (53% female) attending high school in three waves between 2013, 2014 and 2015 in three Connecticut public schools. The bidirectional relationship between cigarette use and e-cigarette use over time was then examined using autoregressive cross-lagged models.
Furthermore, the researchers adjusted models to determine how sex, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status and use of other tobacco products affected predictive outcomes.
Those who used e-cigarettes within the past month were more likely to smoke cigarettes in the future (2013-2014: OR = 7.08; 95% CI, 2.34-21.42; 2014-2015: OR = 3.87; 95% CI, 1.86-8.06). Despite this connection, adolescents who used cigarettes in the past month were not more likely to use e-cigarettes in the future (2013-2014: OR = 2.02; 95% CI, 0.67-6.08; 2014-2015: OR = 1.90; 95% CI, 0.77-4.71).
Regardless of cigarette form, teens who smoked were likely to smoke more as the study period continued. In 2015, a significant number of cigarette users (26%) and e-cigarette users (20.5%) reported using tobacco between 21 and 30 days in the previous month.
“It is important for parents to talk to kids about e-cigarettes and other tobacco products,” Bold said. “Most tobacco addiction starts in adolescence. With e-cigarette devices in particular, I think we want to be cautious because the devices are not yet regulated by the FDA and we do not have enough research to know the possible long-term effects of e-cigarette use.
“More research is coming out that is suggesting youth who use e-cigarettes are at risk to use other tobacco products in the future, so it is important to also address e-cigarette use when we talk about preventing tobacco use.” – by Katherine Bortz
Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.
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