Teenagers whose parents are smokers are 55% more likely to try e-cigarettes, according to Irish research.
A study by a team at the TobaccoFree Research Institute Ireland (TFRI), in Dublin, also reported the proportion who have tried e-cigarettes has been increasing dramatically and while boys are more likely to use e-cigarettes, the rate of use among girls is rapidly increasing.
The findings were presented to delegates at the European Respiratory Society International Congress in Barcelona, Spain, yesterday.
The researchers examined data on 6,216 17-18-year-olds, which included information on whether or not their parents smoked while they were growing up. The teenagers were also asked if they smoked or used e-cigarettes.
The study showed that teenagers whose parents smoked were about 55% more likely to have tried e-cigarettes and about 51% more likely to have tried smoking.
The team went on to combine several Irish data sets to provide the most comprehensive analyses of teenage e-cigarette use in Ireland, with information on more than 10,000 Irish teenagers, aged 16 to 17, to explore the overall numbers of teenagers trying or regularly using e-cigarettes and how this is changing over time.
They found the proportion who had tried e-cigarettes had increased from 23% in 2014 to 39% in 2019, with the main reasons for trying them being curiosity (66%) and because their friends were vaping (29%). Only 3% said it was to quit smoking.
The proportion who said they had never used tobacco when they first tried e-cigarettes increased from 32% in 2015 to 68% in 2019.
Professor Luke Clancy, TFRI director general, said: “We have found increasing use of e-cigarettes in Irish teenagers and that’s a pattern that is emerging elsewhere in the world. There’s a perception that vaping is a better alternative to smoking, but our research shows that this doesn’t apply to teenagers who usually haven’t tried cigarettes prior to e-cigarettes. This indicates that, for teens, vaping is a route into nicotine addiction, rather than out of it.”
When they examined in detail the data on 3,421 16-year-olds to see if there were differences between boys and girls, boys were more likely to try or use e-cigarettes, but rates were increasing more quickly among girls, with 23% saying they had tried e-cigarettes in 2015 and 39% in 2019.
Researchers found that having friends who smoke and having less parental monitoring were both major factors in teenage use of e-cigarettes.
Doctoral researcher Ms Salome Sunday told the Congress: “We can see that parents and friends have an influence on teenagers’ decisions to try e-cigarettes and that’s important because these are factors that we can try to change. However, governments need to play their part by making laws to protect children and young people. We already do this with smoking and we need to do the same with vaping.”
Abstract no: OA678 Salome Sunday et al. *Parental smoking predicts teenage smoking and e-cigarette use in Ireland-a longitudinal study* Presented in session *Best abstracts on tobacco, nicotine and cannabis*.
Abstract no: PA970 Luke Clancy et al. *E-cigarettes in Ireland – prevalence, motivations, and relationship with tobacco* Presented in session *Tobacco and nicotine: where are we after the pandemic*.
Abstract no: OA680 Joan Hanafin et al. *Gender differences in teenage e-cigarette prevalence and predictive variables* Presented in session *Best abstracts on tobacco, nicotine and cannabis*.
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