Vaping age in the US decreasing, intensity of use shooting up, new study says

As per a new study, teenagers who vape are starting younger and using e-cigarettes more intensely, even though the numberof such teenagers is declining. The study published Monday in the medical journal JAMA Network Open says that the number of teenagers who used e-cigarettes within five minutes of waking up had shot up to 10.3 per cent from 2017 through 2021, a number which stood considerably lower at one per cent between the years 2014 and 2017.

“This increase in intensity may reflect increasing use of nicotine for self-medication in response to increases in adolescent depression, anxiety, tic disorders, and suicidality that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the researchers from San Francisco and Massachusetts General Hospital wrote in the study.

The study further said that school-based prevention and treatment efforts suffered due to the pandemic. The efforts to address the nicotine addiction in those adolescents who missed a year of contact with adults also need to be intensified, itadded.

Self-reported data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Youth Tobacco Surveys and Youth Risk Behaviour Surveillance System was used for the study, which included a total of 151,573 participants. All of them were from either the middle or high school in the United States.

According to the results, between 2014 and 2021, the age when such use began decreased. However, the number of times e-cigarettes were used increased from about nine or fewer days a month to 10 or more. The mean age of survey respondents was 14.5 years old.

The proportion of adolescents whose first-ever use of a tobacco product was an e-cigarette increased from 27.2 per cent in 2014 to 78.3 per cent in 2019. The figure didn't change much in 2021 either.

When compared with traditional cigarette smokers, the number of e-cigarette users who smoked within first five minutes of waking up each day also increased. “The changes detected in this surveymay reflect the higher levels of nicotine delivery and addiction liability of modern e-cigarettes that use protonated nicotine to make nicotine easier to inhale,” the researchers wrote.

The researchers stressed upon the "clinical need to address youth addiction to these new high-nicotine products". They also raised fears that most teenagers don't even know that their e-cigarette contains nicotine.

The US Food and Drug Administration had banned flavoured cartridge-based e-cigarettes in 2020, barring tobacco or menthol. But according to the study, disposable flavored e-cigarettes became increasingly popular among adolescents after the ban. The researchers have called upon clinicians to be prepared to address youth addiction.

(With inputs from agencies)