Study: E-Cigarettes Make It Harder for Kids to Quit Nicotine

Date:

With e-cigarettes involved, a new analysis shows a higher share of adolescents have unsuccessfully tried to quit using nicotine.

Electronic cigarette use is driving a rise in the proportion of young people who try but fail to quit using nicotine, a new study indicates.

The percentage of adolescents who reported at least one unsuccessful attempt at quitting either electronic or combustible cigarettes was 5.74% in 2020, according to the study published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. When compared with the past prevalence of adolescents who’d tried to quit using traditional cigarettes, that marks the highest prevalence of failed attempts in more than a decade, or since 2006.

That higher percentage of failed quit attempts was largely driven by 4.12% of adolescents who had an unsuccessful attempt to quit e-cigarettes in 2020, the only year for which attempts to quit e-cigarettes was studied.

The findings are estimates based on an analysis of survey results from 1997 to 2020 that encompassed more than 815,000 middle school and high school students. They also showed that the percentage of adolescents who reported at least one unsuccessful attempt to quit combustible cigarettes went slightly up to 2.23% in 2020 compared with 1.27% in 2019, but remained far lower than the 9.82% in 1997.

Lead study author Richard Miech, a research professor in the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, says e-cigarettes are a potential threat to the progress made in recent decades in decreasing nicotine use among youth.

Many regard the steep decline in the overall U.S. smoking rate as one of the largest public health accomplishments of the past century. Among youth, the percentage of high school students who reported smoking cigarettes at least once 30 days prior to being surveyed fell from 36% in 1997 to 6% in 2019, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Youth Risk Behavior Survey.

“Unfortunately we are seeing that with e-cigarettes, more kids are struggling with nicotine,” Miech says. “With e-cigarettes we have gone backwards, quite substantially.”

In 2014, e-cigarettes became the most commonly used tobacco product among youth, and concerns have been growing about their potential public health risk.

E-cigarette use among middle and high school students increased 900% from 2011 to 2015, according to a 2018 advisory by the U.S. surgeon general. In 2021, approximately 1 out of every 35 middle school students and 1 out of every 9 high school students reported they had used electronic cigarettes in the past 30 days, according to the CDC. By contrast, 1 out of every 100 middle school students and 2 out of every 100 high school students reported smoking cigarettes in the past 30 days in 2021.

More than 80% of the 2.5 million middle school and high school students who reported using a tobacco product in the past 30 days in 2021 had used e-cigarettes, according to results from the 2021 National Youth Tobacco Survey published this month in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Among e-cigarette users, nearly 40% had used such products at least 20 out of the past 30 days.

Matthew Myers, president of anti-smoking organization the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, says targeted marketing by e-cigarette companies toward younger users, coupled with a lack of clear messaging about the harms such devices can pose to kids, has consistently contributed to the rapid increase in youth e-cigarette use.

“Industry portrayal of these products in their advertising as cool and chic and modern has misled kids into believing they’re safe,” Myers says.

Though federal officials previously moved to restrict flavored e-cigarettes that can appeal to youth, Congress included a provision within the recently signed $1.5 trillion omnibus appropriations bill that enables the Food and Drug Administration to regulate synthetic nicotine products as tobacco products, aiming to close a regulatory loophole. Anti-smoking advocates have lauded the inclusion of the measure as a positive step toward tougher oversight in how e-cigarette products are produced and marketed.

Myers says the JAMA study confirms suspicions that a larger proportion of children are becoming heavily addicted to nicotine from using e-cigarettes instead of combustible cigarettes.

“We need to do much more to help kids who are addicted to e-cigarettes to quit,” Myers says. “The challenge posed by e-cigarettes is greater because the modern e-cigarette delivers more nicotine … more rapidly to kids, leading to a more intense addiction.”

Another big challenge is the dearth in research available on effective approaches to help youth stop vaping. Myers says many of the programs aimed at decreasing youth smoking over the years have largely focused on prevention.

Currently, over-the-counter nicotine replacement therapies like patches and gums that have been on the market for years to help adults quit smoking are not approved by the FDA for use in children under 18, requiring them to access such products through a physician.

“More research needs to be done on these FDA-approved devices and other mechanisms for kids,” Myers says.

Read full article here.

Steven Ross Johnson – U.S. News – 2022-03-22.

Want More Investigative Content?

Curate RegWatch
Curate RegWatchhttps://regulatorwatch.com
In addition to our original coverage, RegWatch curates top stories on issues and impacts arising from the regulation of economic, social and environmental activity in Canada and the U.S.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

MORE VAPING

Real Threat | Health Minister Unravels Canada’s Tobacco Strategy | RegWatch

Canadian Federal Health Minister Mark Holland is launching a crusade against safer nicotine products, driven by the uncompromising stance of non-profit health groups vehemently...

Vaping Coverage Get it NOW!

Sign Up for Incisive Content!

RegWatch original video is designed to move opinion. Get our videos first and be the first to share.

Your Information will never be shared with any third party