Study Finds Teens Who Vape Are More Likely to Start Smoking

Boston University School of Public Health reports low-risk groups of teens are nearly nine times more likely to try traditional tobacco cigarettes after they’ve vaped. The study, “Association of Electronic Cigarette Use With Subsequent Initiation of Tobacco Cigarettes in US Youths” published in JAMA Network Open, reports low-risk teens don’t do drugs, have little interest in trends, and would turn down a cigarette if offered one by a friend.

Using data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study, investigators found of the 6,123 US youths ages 12 to 15 who had not used any tobacco or nicotine cigarette products in 2013–2014, 8.6% had used an e-cigarette and their first tobacco or nicotine product by 2015–2016. Researchers found that study participants were three times more likely to go from vaping to smoking cigarettes, than to go directly to smoking cigarettes.

The team estimates that 178,850 US youths ages 12 to 15 years vaped and then went on to smoke a cigarette during the study period, and 43,446 went from vaping to reporting that they currently smoked cigarettes in 2016, according to Boston University School of Public Health.