The study titled Examining the relationship of vaping to smoking initiation among US youth and young adults: a reality check, was published in the journal Tobacco Control last month. The research was led by public health experts Professors David Levy, Ken Warner and Australian Ron Borland.
“There was a substantial increase in youth vaping prevalence beginning in about 2014. Time trend analyses showed that the decline in past 30-day smoking prevalence accelerated by two to four times after 2014. Indicators of more established smoking rates, including the proportion of daily smokers among past 30-day smokers, also decreased more rapidly as vaping became more prevalent,” read the study Abstract.
Vaping does not lead to smoking
The researchers pointed out that different data sets for both youth and young adults indicated an inverse relationship between vaping and smoking. Hence, they concluded, while trying vapes may causally increase smoking amongst some youth, “the aggregate effect at the population level appears to be negligible”, as smoking rates have dropped significantly during the same time period when vaping was rising in popularity.
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