Does vaping lead to cigarette smoking in young people who have never smoked?

With increasing concern about young people vaping nicotine, a question remains on whether this could lead to the initiation of cigarette smoking. A paper looking at this topic has just been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Titled “Association of electronic cigarette use by adolescents with subsequent persistent cigarette smoking”, the paper uses data from a national sample of 8671 cigarette naïve adolescents. The study tracked the young people over a 2-year period and found that while those who vaped had higher odds of continuing tobacco smoking at the 2 year follow up, the small magnitude of absolute risks and the minor risk differences between the two groups suggest that few adolescents report continued smoking after initiation regardless of e-cigarette use. This study builds on existing epidemiological evidence from the United Kingdom, New Zealand and the United States that indicates rapid uptake of vaping amongst young people leads in an increasing reduction in the uptake of cigarette smoking.

Go to “Association of electronic cigarette use by adolescents with subsequent persistent cigarette smoking”