Abstract
Currently, the debate surrounding the regulation of e-cigarettes focuses mainly on the size of e-cigarettes' potentially beneficial effects (i.e., adult cessation) versus their unwarranted effects (i.e., initiation among tobacco-naïve adolescents). Therefore, we investigated the relative scale of e-cigarette use transitions in the United States. We reported cross-sectional weighted prevalence estimates of past-month e-cigarette use by ever cigarette use from Waves 1–4 of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health study (2013–2018) among youth (12–17 years) and adults (≥ 18 years). We also examined past-month e-cigarette mono and dual transitions related to cigarette smoking and reported the longitudinal weighted prevalence across waves. Among youth new e-cigarette users, the proportion of never-cigarette smokers increased from 24.1 in Wave 1 (n = 418) to 51.4% in Wave 4 (n = 310) (p < 0.0001 for trend). Of youth past-month e-cigarette mono-users in Wave 1 (n = 151), 15.2% transitioned to cigarette mono-use and 8.2% dual-use at Wave 2 or 3 or 4, compared to 60.2% no tobacco use and 16.4% e-cigarette mono-use. Among young adult past-month dual-users (18–24 years; n = 684), 22.6% transitioned to no tobacco use, 60.1% continued cigarette use, 11.4% dual use, and 5.9% e-cigarette mono-use. Among adult dual-users ≥ 25 years old (n = 1560), 13.6% transitioned to no tobacco use, 71.3% cigarette mono-use, 9.0% dual-use, and 6.1% e-cigarette mono-use. Transition to cigarette mono-use and continued dual-use were common among adult past-month e-cigarette users, while e-cigarette initiation was common among youth never-cigarette smokers. These findings contrast with data from other countries showing limited evidence of e-cigarette initiation among youth never cigarette smokers. Both e-cigarette and cigarette use should be addressed in youth and adults, given the potential for dual use in both populations.
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Data Availability
The data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Data is publicly available from the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research at https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36498.v11.
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Funding
Olatokunbo Osibogun was supported by the NIDA T32DA043449 Grant at the time of this study. Zoran Bursac is supported by FIU-Research Center in Minority Institution (Grant U54MD012393-01). Wasim Maziak is supported by NIH (Grants R01-DA035160, R01-TW010654, R01-DA042477) and the NIDA T32DA043449 Grant. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
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Osibogun, O., Chapman, S., Peters, M. et al. E-cigarette Transitions Among US Youth and Adults: Results from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study (2013–2018). J Primary Prevent 43, 387–405 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10935-022-00678-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10935-022-00678-z