More evidence that e-cigs are selling cigs, this time in young adults

Mark Olfson and colleagues’ new paper E-cigarette Use Among Young Adults in the U.S. published in American Journal of Preventive Medicine adds to the  strong and consistent case the e-cigarettes are making the tobacco epidemic worse by maintaining cigarette smoking.  Far from “harm reduction,” they found that young adults who used e-cigarettes were more likely to be heavier smokers and a lot less likely to be former smokers (adjusted OR 0.14).  No wonder all the big cigarette companies are now taking over the e-cig business.  They help them sell cigarettes.

How many more years will it take the FDA and some evidence-impervious scientists to read the handwriting on the wall?

Here is the abstract:

Introduction. Use of e-cigarettes is increasing among young adults in the U.S. Whether e-cigarette use serves as an aid to smoking reduction or cessation among young adults remains a matter of contention. This analysis examines patterns of e-cigarette use in relation to cigarette smoking in a nationally representative sample of U.S. young adults.

Methods.  Data were analyzed from nationally representative U.S. adults, aged 18 to 35 years (N=12,415), in the 2012–2013 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions-III. Logistic regression assessed associations between e-cigarette use and smoking intensity, continuity, and reduction while controlling for several potential confounding factors. Data were analyzed in 2018.

Results. Among cigarette smokers, e-cigarette use was associated with higher odds of tobacco use disorder (AOR=2.58, 95% CI=1.73, 3.83) and daily cigarette smoking (AOR=1.67, 95% CI=1.73, 3.83). Among adults aged 26–35years, e-cigarette use was also associated with heavy cigarette smoking (AOR=2.01, 95% CI=1.09, 3.74). Among lifetime smokers, e-cigarette use was associated with lower odds of stopping smoking (AOR=0.14, 95% CI=0.08, 0.23) and lower odds of a 50% reduction in cigarettes smoked per day (AOR=0.63, 95% CI=0.43, 0.93). Only 13.1% of young adults who ever used e-cigarettes reported using them to help stop or quit smoking.

Conclusions Use of e-cigarettes by U.S. young adults, most of which is not intended to help reduce smoking, is related to more rather than less frequent and intensive cigarette smoking.

The full citation is:  Olfson, Mark et al. E-cigarette Use Among Young Adults in the U.S.  American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2019;56(5):655–663.  It is available here.

Add new comment

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.