“Vaping” A Gateway to Smoking Cigarettes
February 28th, 2018
The use of electronic cigarettes, also called e-cigarettes or vapes, is increasingly popular among young people, but if you think they can keep you from smoking tobacco cigarettes you may be wrong. New research from the University of Pittsburgh published in The American Journal of Medicine suggests that people who vape are actually more than four times as likely to begin smoking tobacco cigarettes compared to people who do not vape.
Researchers surveyed 1,506 young adults ages 18-30 who had never smoked tobacco cigarettes and who may or may not have used e-cigarettes. Eighteen months later, 915 participants completed a follow-up survey revealing that 11.2 percent of them had started smoking tobacco cigarettes since the first survey. Of people who reported using e-cigarettes in the first questionnaire, 37.5 percent had started smoking tobacco cigarettes 18 months later, compared to 9 percent of those who had not used e-cigarettes.
More research is needed to find out why e-cigarettes make it more likely that someone will begin smoking tobacco cigarettes, but Dr. Primack’s team has several ideas about the link. One theory is that using e-cigarettes makes the transition to tobacco cigarettes easy due to the similar physical behaviors like inhaling, exhaling, and holding the device in the hand. Another possibility is that e-cigarette users build tolerance to their relatively low amount of nicotine and seek out tobacco cigarettes as their nicotine craving builds. Lastly, the researchers point out that changing social pressures may play a role, similar to the way that younger alcohol drinkers often favor sweeter, lighter alcoholic beverages before moving on to harder, more concentrated drinks.
“Young adulthood is an important time when people establish whether they use tobacco or not,” said lead author Brian Primack, MD, PhD. “Our findings suggest that clinicians who treat e-cigarette users should counsel them both about their potential for harm and about the high risk of transitioning to tobacco cigarettes among initial nonsmokers.”
Are you interested in smoking studies? Visit our Pitt+Me page to learn about current research study opportunities.