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New York, November 9 (IANS): Researchers revealed that e-cigarette use is associated with a higher risk of cigarette smoking among teenagers who had no intention of starting conventional smoking.
The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, found that e-cigarettes can predispose teens to cigarette smoking, even when they have no intention of doing so.
“Research is showing us that teens who consume e-cigarettes who progress in cigarette smoking aren’t simply the ones who would have ended up smoking anyway,” said study author Olusegun Owotomo of the Children’s National Hospital in the United States.
In one of the first nationally representative, theory-driven studies to identify which adolescent e-cigarette users are most at risk of progressing to cigarette smoking, researchers looked at data from more than 8,000 adolescents, ages 12-17 , who had never smoked.
The data was collected from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) study, an NIH and FDA collaborative prospective cohort study of tobacco use, from 2014 to 2016.
Among teens who did not intend to smoke cigarettes in the future, those who used e-cigarettes were four times more likely to start smoking cigarettes a year later than those who did not use e-cigarettes.
E-cigarette use is a relatively new risk factor for nicotine use disorder among US teenagers.
Previous studies found that 28% of high school students and 11% of middle school students were currently e-cigarette consumers.
With the recent emergence of newer and potentially highly addicting e-cigarette products, teens who use e-cigarettes are at an increased risk of developing nicotine use disorders and progressing to smoking conventional cigarettes.
“Abstinence from e-cigarettes can protect teens from becoming future smokers and should be framed as a smoking prevention strategy by all stakeholders,” Owotomo noted.
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