Under 20s who use e-cigs may be three times more likely to smoke tobacco

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-09-09 04:00

Australia; NSW; VIC

Image by Ethan Parsa from Pixabay

Under 20's who use e-cigs could be at higher risk of tobacco cigarette smoking later, according to an Australian study, regardless of if the e-cig contained nicotine products. The researchers reviewed evidence from 25 previous studies and found that youths who had ever used an e-cigarette, either nicotine and non-nicotine variants, were three times more likely to use tobacco cigarettes. The team suggests that these findings are of concern because adolescents who use e-cigs are believed to have different psychological profiles to current smokers, and would otherwise have been considered at low-risk of smoking. They urge governments to take action to regulate the availability of e-cig products to children and adolescents.

Journal/
conference: PLOS ONE

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Swinburne University of Technology, The University of Newcastle, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC), The University of New South Wales

Funder: This study was funded by the World Health Organization to SLY, LW, ET. This was from grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded to authors RF, and VP. The funder WHO had a role in study design, but had no role in data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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