The study titled, “E-Cigarette-Only and Dual Use among Adolescents in Ireland: Emerging Behaviours with Different Risk Profiles,” consisted of a cross-sectional analysis of the youth survey, with the aim of extracting nicotine-use patterns within a 30 day time frame.
A total of 4422 adolescents had been surveyed, out of these, 22.1% were current nicotine product users, consisting of 5.1% e-cigarette only users, 7.7% conventional cigarette only users, and 9.3% dual-users, ie. the highest prevalent behaviour was dual use. Non-surprisingly, the odds of association for risk factors, were weaker for e-cigarette only, in comparison to cigarette only use or dual use.
Factors that reduce the likelihood of smoking
Participation in team sports was found to reduce the use of conventional smoking. “Participating in team sport four times/week or more significantly reduced the odds of conventional cigarette and dual use but had no association with e-cigarette only use (Cig: adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 0.63, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.44-0.90; Dual-use: AOR 0.63, 95% CI 0.43-0.93),” read the study Abstract.
“Similarly, having higher value for conventional social norms reduced the odds of conventional cigarette and dual use but not e-cigarette only use. This is the first study to show, among a generalisable sample, that dual-use is the most prevalent behaviour among adolescent nicotine product users in Ireland. Risk factor profiles differ across categories of use and prevention initiatives must be cognisant of this.”
US Study Says Dual Use is as Harmful to Heart Health as Smoking
