Teens who use e-cigarettes are not significantly likely to go on and smoke standard cigarettes, according to a new study.
The work, published today (18 March) in Tobacco Control looked at the possible ‘gateway’ effect of e-cigarette use among teens. Contrary to fears, it seems that e-cigarette users may even be less likely to go on to smoke than their peers.
They analysed information from 2014 to 2017 on tobacco product use among 38,630 adolescents in the US National Youth Tobacco Survey.
Those who tried e-cigarettes were less about half as likely to have smoked cigarettes. The team also found that girls were less likely than boys to have tried any product, and that overall, the rate rose with increasing age.
The authors, led by Dr Lion Shahab of University College London, UK, conclude: “Less than 1% of US adolescents who use e-cigarettes first were established cigarette smokers. They were less likely to be smokers than adolescents who tried other combustible or non-combustible tobacco products first and propensity score matched adolescents without initial e-cigarette use.”
They add: “This underlines the fact that cigarettes act as a much more important gateway for any product use.
”Over the time period considered, e-cigarettes were unlikely to have acted as an important gateway towards cigarette smoking, and may, in fact, have acted as a gateway away from smoking for vulnerable adolescents… The postulated gateway effect is likely to be small.”
Shahab, L. et al. Association of initial e-cigarette and other tobacco product use with subsequent cigarette smoking in adolescents: a cross-sectional, matched control study. Tobacco Control 18 March 2020 doi: 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2019-055283
http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/lookup/doi/10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2019-055283
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