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Almost one-tenth of US students use cannabis in e-cigarettes
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Approximately 9% of U.S. middle and high school students reported using cannabis in e-cigarettes in 2016, according to research published in JAMA Pediatrics. This included one-third of students who reported e-cigarette use.
The results equate “to more than 2 million youth who have ever used cannabis in an e-cigarette, including nearly one in three high school e-cigarette users and nearly one in four middle school e-cigarette users,” Katrina E. Trivers, PhD, MSPH, lead epidemiologist in the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health, told Infectious Diseases in Children.
Trivers and colleagues used data from the 2016 National Youth Tobacco Survey of 20,675 U.S. students (50.2% male) in grades 6 to 12 in public and private schools, including 5,217 students who reported having ever used e-cigarettes. The students were aged 9 to 19 years or older. The researchers found that 8.9% of all students (95% CI, 8.1%-9.9%) and 30.6% of students who identified as ever using e-cigarettes (95% CI, 28.3%-33.1%) reported using of cannabis in e-cigarettes.
Male students were significantly more likely to use cannabis this way (10.6% for all respondents; 33.3% for e-cigarette users), as were high school students (12.4% for all respondents; 33.3% for e-cigarette users), current e-cigarette users (39.5% for all respondents; 40.3% for e-cigarette users) and current users of other tobacco products (38.5% for all respondents; 46.9% for e-cigarette users). Students who reported using e-cigarettes during most of the prior 30 days (20 to 30 days) compared with those who used e-cigarettes during 1 to 5 or 6 to 19 days during that time, also were more likely to use cannabis in e-cigarettes (63.7%), as were students who lived with a tobacco user (13% for all respondents; 31.7% for e-cigarette users). Hispanic students had a higher prevalence of e-cigarette cannabis use compared with other races and ethnicities (10.8% for all respondents, P = .04).
“These findings reinforce the importance of strategies to reduce all forms of e-cigarette use, including with cannabis, to protect our nation’s young people from this preventable health risk,” Trivers said. “E-cigarette use among youth is unsafe. The use of cannabis in e-cigarettes is of particular public health concern given that the National Academies of Science has found cannabis use among youth can adversely affect learning and memory and may impair later academic achievement and education.”
Trivers said that pediatricians, nurses and other health care providers can ask about e-cigarette use and counsel the youth “about the dangers of e-cigarette use, including with cannabis. They can also ask all patients whether they use tobacco products, encourage those who do to quit, and provide help with quitting.” – by Bruce Thiel
Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.
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