Study: Most teens who use e-cigarettes try to quit without help
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Key takeaways:
- Common e-cigarette quitting methods for teens include peer support, help on the internet and mobile apps.
- Most adolescents who use e-cigarettes attempted to quit in the past year, usually without help.
Most adolescents who use e-cigarettes have attempted to quit in the past year but usually without seeking outside help, according to study findings published in Pediatrics.
“Youth e-cigarette use continues to be a public health concern, and overcoming vaping addiction has become a challenge to youth as our prior study shows that a majority of adolescent e-cigarette users experienced unsuccessful attempts at quitting,” Hongying Daisy Dai, PhD, associate dean of research at the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Public Health, told Healio. “However, there is a dearth of research about factors associated with the adoption of vaping cessation methods.”
Dai and colleagues studied data from the National Youth Tobacco Survey, which included responses from 20,413 middle and high school students in the United States. Among 1,436 current e-cigarette users, 67.9% reported making a past-year quit attempt and were enrolled in the study.
“We further examined the prevalence and associations of sociodemographic factors, vaping behaviors and harm perception with the adoption of different vaping cessation methods,” Dai said.
The researchers found that, among the 1,436 e-cigarette users who had attempted at least once in the prior year to quit, just 63.7% reported enlisting any help from a formal vaping cessation treatment program.
In the survey, the four top cessation methods were peer support (14.2%), help on the internet (6.4%), a mobile app or text messaging (5.9%) and parent support (5.8%), with very few using a doctor or health care provider.
“The family environment is an essential venue for youth growth, and peer influence plays a crucial role in youth e-cigarette use,” Dai said. “These factors need to be considered in future youth vaping cessation efforts.”
The researchers also found that adoption of vaping cessation methods was higher among those with high vaping frequency/duration, dual users of e-cigarettes and other tobacco products and certain demographic groups, such as those with differences of sex, cultural background and vaping experience factors. Among other findings, females who used e-cigarettes were less likely to solicit parent support, whereas Hispanic teens who used e-cigarettes were more likely to seek friend support, according to the study.
“Encouraging youth to discuss their tobacco use with their doctor may yield more quit attempts, better access to available supports, medications to help cut down or at least better control of withdrawal symptoms, and ultimately a greater chance of success in quitting tobacco products,” Dai said.
According to Dai, “it remains unknown how effectively these cessation methods help adolescents successfully quit vaping.” The authors recommended developing tailored approaches to meet cessation needs and preferences of the adolescent vaping population.
“Longitudinal studies or randomized controlled trials are needed to assess the efficacy of these cessation methods in achieving long-term abstinence,” Dai said.
Collapse
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts