A recently published study entitled, “High school seniors who used e-cigarettes may have otherwise been cigarette smokers: Evidence from Monitoring the Future” suggests that teens who vape would likely have turned to combustible cigarette smoking if e-cigs were not available. While the results were published as an academic article in Nicotine & Tobacco Research, if you continue reading, a summary of the outline of the study and its findings can be found below.
The study
Researchers challenged the so-called “gateway” theory—an idea that vaping is a path toward smoking—by running a regression analysis of 12th-graders. The data was pulled from the “Monitoring the Future Report”, a survey that was conducted by the federal government’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The survey is used to measure drug use by adolescents nationwide and is modeled to examine variables such as age, race, ethnicity, geographic region of residency, grade point average, alcohol consumption, and parents’ educational attainment.
All of the above-mentioned factors contribute to youth smoking and the model also shows how that prevalence has dropped significantly since e-cigarettes have become widespread and more available versus the pre-ecigarette era.
What were the results?
The restrictions that are currently hurting responsible vapers, like those who enjoy our lineup of Logic power refills, are a direct result of an increase in youth e-cigarette use in recent years, however, this study sought to determine that those who used e-cigs between 2014 and 2018 would have turned to smoking combustible cigarettes if vape products had not been available.
In other words, the youth who do choose to vape would be smokers if e-cigs were unavailable. The decline in youth smoking is a direct result of the accelerated availability of e-cigs.
“There are two bits of good news in this,” said Clive Bates, a tobacco control expert and former director of Action on Smoking and Health. “The first is that young smokers will be diverted into vaping and probably spared a life of smoking. The second is that most of the vaping among kids who never would have been smokers will be pretty transient and likely not persist after a period of experimentation.
Mature, adult vapers should be able to curb their nicotine cravings with the help of Logic power refills and studies like this one are key in ensuring the continuation and longevity of e-cigs as a smoking cessation aid.
What did you find most interesting about the above study? Drop a comment below to share.
