Are teen e-cigarette users more likely to smoke in the future?

Another study just published on the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Pediatrics, suggests that teen e-cigarette users are more likely to proceed to smoking than non-users. However, national smoking rates tell a different story

Diane Caruana

January 4, 2018

The study was carried out by the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education and concluded that vaping may end up reversing the current declining smoking trends. “Any use of e-cigarettes, hookah, non-cigarette combustible tobacco, or smokeless tobacco was independently associated with cigarette smoking 1 year later. Use of more than 1 product increased the odds of progressing to cigarette use,” read the study Abstract.

People who have a tendency to experiment with tobacco products in general, are also more likely to also experiment with cigarettes. Additionally, ever use or experimentation does not equate and necessarily lead to addiction.

The initial survey included over 10,000 participants aged between 12 and 17. After a one year follow-up looking into the participants’ tobacco related behavior, 469 (4.6%) of all baseline never-smoking youths reported trying a cigarette, while 219 (2.1%) had smoked a cigarette within the past 30 days. Cigarette ever use was reported at a higher rate amongst teens who had ever used e-cigarettes at (78 [19.1%]), hookah (60 [18.3%]), non-cigarette combustible tobacco (45 [19.2%]), or smokeless tobacco (29 [18.8%]) at baseline.

However, as public health experts have previously pointed out in relation to similar findings, such results reporting ever use could easily be attributed to the fact that people who have a tendency to experiment with tobacco products in general, are also more likely to experiment with cigarettes. Additionally, ever use or experimentation does not equate and necessarily lead to addiction.

Current rates of teen smoking and general tobacco use, indicate otherwise

Smoking rates amongst high school students were cut in half in only five years, between 2011 to 2016, when vaping amongst the same age group increased from 1.5% to a peak of 16.0%.

On a different note, recent survey data published last month, indicated that a rise in vaping is leading to decreased smoking rates. The Monitoring the Future Study indicated that smoking rates amongst senior high schoolers have dropped from 36.5% in 1997 to 9.7% this year, a 73% drop. Additionally, smoking rates amongst younger students, have dropped even more significantly, from 30.4% in 1996 to 5% in 2017, whilst the drop amongst 10th-graders was of 84% and amongst eighth-graders of 91%.

Inline with these survey results, data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last June, clearly indicate that smoking rates amongst high school students were cut in half in only five years, between 2011 to 2016. Most importantly during this same time, vaping amongst the same age group increased from 1.5% to a peak of 16.0% in 2015, which then also proceeded to drop from 16.0% in 2015 to 11.3% in 2016.

Read Further: The Washington Times