Smoking, tobacco use among adolescents continues to decline even with the increase in e-cigarette use

Despite the increase in e-cigarette use among teens, the prevalence of smokeless cigarettes and tobacco declined faster between 2012 and 2019 than in previous periods, according to a new study.

Analysis from the University of Michigan and Georgetown University shows that daily and past 30-day use of smokeless cigarettes and tobacco has declined more rapidly since 2012, although e-cigarette use has started to increase, leading to at historic low levels of both cigarette and smokeless tobacco use among teenagers in the United States.

“While the increases in e-cigarettes are truly worrying and something we need to address and reverse, the decreases in other tobacco products, especially cigarettes, the most worrying form of tobacco use, are accelerating,” the lead researcher said. Rafael Meza, associate professor of epidemiology and global health at UM’s School of Public Health.

“We are in a phase where cigarette smoking is disappearing. This is something we need to highlight and celebrate. This acceleration in decrease occurs across grades, races, genders. So it’s really happening across the board and suggests that it’s a general pattern that children don’t like to smoke anymore. “

Meza and colleagues wanted to understand long-term and recent trends in cigarette smoking and smokeless tobacco product use among adolescents by grade (8th, 10th, 12th), gender, and race. Using data from the nationwide Monitoring the Future survey at UM from 1991 to 2019, they examined the prevalence of tobacco product use over the past 30 days among major socio-demographic groups, identifying the change in trend years for secondary schools and superiors of the United States.

They found that the daily prevalence of smoking among 12-year-olds increased by 4.9% annually from 1991 to 1998, but recorded an annual decline of 8% between 1998 and 2006 and of 1.6 % from 2006 to 2012. However, from 2012 to 2019, prevalence decreased by 17% per annum. Overall, the daily prevalence of smoking among 12 years of age has dropped to around 2% by 2019.

“This is an incredibly low rate, and our public health goal should be to continue smoking at or below this rate,” said lead researcher David Levy, professor of oncology at Georgetown.

Similar results were seen for both boys and girls of all grades and African American and white teenagers. Smokeless tobacco use showed greater variability in 2012, followed by substantial declines over the past five years. The MTF data also shows a similar rapid decrease in cigar and cigarillo use among teenagers in recent years, suggesting a general pattern in traditional tobacco products.

Meza said the findings are important because while e-cigarettes are troubling on their own, there have been concerns that the increase in e-cigarette use could result in an increase in the use of other tobacco products, including smoking. cigarette that could potentially overturn. the declines we have seen over the past two decades.

“But on the contrary, what we found is that the decline in smoking is accelerating,” he said. “So I think the good news is that the rapid increase in e-cigarette use has not yet led to a reversal of the decreasing trends in cigarette smoking and smokeless tobacco use, and if nothing else, those trends have accelerated “.