E-cigarette use among US youths climbs, with pandemic years showing slight decline
An article printed in JAMA Network Open offers the present prevalence of digital cigarette (e-cigarette) utilization amongst youths in the USA.
Research: Trends in Current Electronic Cigarette Use Among Youths by Age, Sex, and Race and Ethnicity. Picture Credit score: Dmytro Tyshchenko / Shutterstock
Background
E-cigarettes, often known as vapes, have been initially invented by a Chinese language pharmacist in 2003 and are battery-operated nicotine-delivery gadgets that produce aerosols by heating a liquid primarily containing nicotine or different tobacco merchandise. Customers inhale the aerosol to expertise a bodily sensation and taste much like that of inhaled tobacco smoke.
E-cigarettes have been initially launched out there as an alternative to standard flamable cigarettes which have extra dangerous well being results. The goal was to assist grownup people who smoke give up their smoking habits. Nevertheless, a number of scientific research have identified the antagonistic well being results of e-cigarettes amongst customers, particularly adolescents, younger adults, pregnant ladies, and non-smokers.
In the USA, e-cigarettes are essentially the most generally used tobacco merchandise amongst youths. There’s a rising concern that habits of e-cigarette use can probably set off dependancy to extra dangerous merchandise, equivalent to standard cigarettes, that are related to untimely morbidity and mortality.
On this research, scientists have evaluated the present traits in e-cigarette use amongst US youths stratified by key sociodemographic traits.
Research design
The scientists used knowledge from the Nationwide Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) over a interval of ten years (2013 – 2022). NYTS is an annual, repeated cross-sectional survey of US middle- and high-school college students. Within the present research, a complete of 186,555 youths with full info on e-cigarette use, age, intercourse, race, and ethnicity have been included within the evaluation.
The research evaluation included self-reported age, intercourse, race, and ethnicity as sociodemographic traits. Present e-cigarette use was outlined as previous 30-day use. The scientists calculated total in addition to sociodemographic traits, stratified the prevalence of e-cigarette use, and assessed the adjustments in prevalence over time (2013 – 2022).
Vital observations
Based on the research estimates, the general prevalence of e-cigarette use was 3.1% in 2013, which elevated to twenty.1% in 2019. In the course of the interval of the coronavirus illness 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the prevalence was 7.5% and 9.4% in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
A constantly increased prevalence was noticed amongst older youths in comparison with that amongst youthful youths. The best prevalence (30%) amongst older youths was noticed in 2019, which remained steady between 2021 and 2022.
Males confirmed a barely increased prevalence of e-cigarette use than females till 2015. In 2019, the prevalence was virtually the identical between men and women. In the course of the pandemic years, females confirmed a barely increased prevalence than males.
Hispanic, non-Hispanic white and non-Hispanic multiracial youths confirmed a better prevalence of e-cigarette use between 2013 and 2020 in comparison with non-Hispanic Black youths. Particularly, the prevalence was increased amongst Hispanic and non-Hispanic whites in 2019 in comparison with that amongst non-Hispanic Black youths. In the course of the pandemic years, the prevalence elevated amongst Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black youths.
Research significance
The research finds a big enhance within the prevalence of e-cigarette use amongst US youths between 2013 and 2019. Though a discount in use has been noticed in the course of the pandemic years, the prevalence stays at a regarding stage.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic-related restrictions, the scientists couldn’t look at the traits in e-cigarette use between 2020 and 2021. This is without doubt one of the limitations of the research. One other limitation is the inclusion of self-reported info on e-cigarette use and sociodemographic traits, which may probably undergo from recall bias.
General, the research offers temporal e-cigarette use traits by age, intercourse, race, and ethnicity and identifies high-use subgroups that require tobacco prevention assist programs. As talked about by the scientists, future research estimating the prevalence of e-cigarette use ought to contemplate further measures, equivalent to frequency of use and selection of flavoring brokers, for a extra complete understanding.
