COVID-19 pandemic impacted youth vaping, cessation motivation
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SAN FRANCISCO — A study of North Philadelphia high school students highlighted the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on youth vaping patterns and cessation motivation, researchers reported at the American Thoracic Society International Conference.
The National Youth Tobacco Survey reported a decrease in current e-cigarette use among high school students from 2019 to 2020 (27.5% vs. 19.6%) due to federal and state-enforced tobacco control policies and school-based educational initiatives.
Jeremy A. Klein, a fourth-year medical student at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, and colleagues analyzed a sample of 653 high school students from a large public high school in North Philadelphia to assess the impact of remote learning and the COVID-19 pandemic on youth vaping patterns. All students completed a voluntary and anonymous online cross-sectional survey from October to November 2020.
More than 68% of students feared contracting SARS-CoV-2 infection and 83.9% reported always wearing a mask while in public. Overall, 86% of students who were ever-users reported that the COVID-19 pandemic increased or failed to change vaping cessation motivation. However, 72% of ever-users contemplated quitting vaping and 56.7% actively attempted vaping cessation.
Among ever-users, 46.2% reported vaping the same amount or more than before the COVID-19 pandemic and 6.45% of students reported beginning to vape during COVID-19.
According to the researchers, federal and state-enforced tobacco control policies and school-based education interventions will not hinder youth vaping alone, and it is imperative to have supportive relationships at home along with remote access to tobacco education and cessation resources.
In the abstract, the researchers noted that future efforts should target expanding and refining remote and home-based tobacco dependence education and smoking cessation resources.