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Does Vaping Increase The Risk of Cigarette And Smokeless Tobacco Use?

A study published in Addictive Behaviours, applied causal inference methods to observational, longitudinal research, and concluded that e-cigarette use increased the risk of smoking cigarettes using smokeless tobacco products, among adolescent boys.

Diane Caruana

June 24, 2021

Titled, “Electronic cigarette use and risk of cigarette and smokeless tobacco initiation among adolescent boys: A propensity score matched analysis,” the current study aimed to determine whether e-cigarette use among adolescents, was associated with increased risk of subsequent cigarette smoking initiation in observational research.

Another study found that teens who crave excitement are more likely to use multiple illicit substances, including tobacco and vaping products.

The study Abstract did point out that the study was not designed in way to identify whether teens who started vaping would have otherwise initiated smoking. “However, the existing research was not designed to answer causal questions about whether adolescent e-cigarette users would have initiated cigarette smoking if they had never used e-cigarettes. The current study used a causal inference framework to identify whether male adolescent e-cigarette users were at increased risk of initiating cigarette smoking and smokeless tobacco (SLT) use, compared to similar boys who had never used e-cigarettes.”

The researchers recruited 1220 adolescent boys aged between 11 and 16, and monitored their use of e-cigarettes, cigarettes, and SLT, at baseline and every six months thereafter for two years. The results suggested that e-cigarette users were more likely to initiate both smoking and SLT use than non-users, an association that has been disproved by countless previous studies.

“Compared to non-users, e-cigarette users were more than twice as likely to later initiate both cigarette smoking (RR = 2.71; 95% CI: 1.89, 3.87) and SLT (RR = 2.42; 95% CI: 1.73, 3.38). They were also more likely to become current (i.e., past 30-day) cigarette smokers (RR = 2.20; 95% CI: 1.33, 3.64) and SLT users (RR = 1.64; 95% CI: 1.01, 2.64).”

Smoking initiation is mostly linked to personality factors

Meanwhile, other studies have indicated that e-cigarette and tobacco use in general, are linked to personality factors. A recent study of high school seniors in the U.S., found that teens who crave excitement are more likely to use multiple illicit substances, including tobacco and vaping products.

Researchers Kevin Tan and Douglas C. Smith, also found that the participants’ attitude towards vaping also reflected how they viewed other substances.