The Journal of the American Medical Association in March published a research letter summarizing “Failed Attempts to Quit Combustible Cigarettes and e-Cigarettes Among US Adolescents.”
The two-page missive included a call for FDA action: “The contribution of e-cigarettes to unsuccessful nicotine quit attempts among adolescents is substantial and warrants consideration as the US formulates policies to regulate e-cigarettes.”
The authors studied nationally representative samples of 8th, 10th and 12th graders in the annual Monitoring the Future study (MTF) from 1997 to 2020. For all years, students were asked if they had ever smoked a cigarette; those who did were then asked, “Have you ever tried to stop smoking cigarettes and found that you could not?” In recent years, the MTF asked students if they had ever vaped nicotine; only in 2020 were they asked, “Have you ever tried to stop vaping nicotine and found that you could not?”
I examined the 2020 data, since that was the focus of the research letter and a related University of Michigan press release. The letter provided only a brief description of methods and analytic strategy. So I requested additional information from the authors, and I used it to analyze the data underlying the letter’s findings.
Brad Rodu – Tobacco Truth – 2022-07-21
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