Long-term study: E-cigarettes increase risk for chronic lung diseases
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E-cigarette use is an independent risk factor for incident respiratory disease, including asthma, bronchitis, emphysema and COPD, researchers reported in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Moreover, dual use of e-cigarettes and combustible tobacco, which was the most common use pattern observed in this study, was associated with greater risk than use of other product alone, according to the results.
“This study is the first population-based longitudinal analysis of the association between e-cigarette use and incident respiratory disease,” Dharma N. Bhatta, PhD, MPH, and Stanton A. Glantz, PhD, both with the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education and the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at University of California, San Francisco, wrote in the study.
According to their results, current e-cigarette use elevated the odds of incident respiratory disease by a factor of 1.29 (95% CI, 1.03-1.61) and former e-cigarette use by a factor of 1.31 (95% CI, 1.07-1.6), after the researchers controlled for combustible tobacco smoking, demographics and clinical variables.
Risk for incident respiratory disease was also elevated with current combustible tobacco smoking (aOR = 2.56; 95% CI, 1.92-3.41).
When the researchers looked at risk for incident respiratory disease among current dual users of e-cigarettes and combustible tobacco, the odds of developing respiratory disease were 3.3 compared with those who never smoked tobacco products or used e-cigarettes, according to the results.
Switching from combustible tobacco smoking to e-cigarettes lowered the risk for developing lung disease; however, less than 1% of smokers in this analysis reported completely switching to e-cigarettes, the researchers reported.
The data come from an analysis of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH), which tracked e-cigarette and tobacco habits along with new lung disease diagnoses in more than 32,000 U.S. adults from 2013 to 2016 who were analyzed again in 2018 to 2019. All patients were free of respiratory diseases at baseline.
“Current use of e-cigarettes appears to be an independent risk factor for respiratory disease in addition to all combustible tobacco smoking. Although switching from combustible tobacco, including cigarettes, to e-cigarettes theoretically could reduce the risk of developing respiratory disease, current evidence indicates a high prevalence of dual use, which is associated with increased risk beyond combustible tobacco use. In addition, for most smokers, using an e-cigarette is associated with lower odds of successfully quitting smoking,” Bhatta and Glantz wrote in the study. – by Katie Kalvaitis
Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.