Youth Using Alternative Tobacco Products More Likely to Smoke cigarettes

Adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 who use e-cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, or tobacco water pipes are more likely to move to conventional cigarettes within a year, according to a collaborative study by the University of California, San Francisco, (UCSF) School of Dentistry and UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education.

The paper, “Association of Noncigarette Tobacco Product Use With Future Cigarette Smoking Among Youth in the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study, 2013-2015” published in JAMA Pediatrics, provides support for legislation banning flavored tobacco products, policies restricting flavors in e-cigarettes, and raising the age of tobacco purchasing to help deter young people from becoming smokers.

The team analyzed data gathered from 10,384 adolescents in the PATH study who said they had never tried a cigarette. A year later, 469 adolescents said they’d tried a cigarette; and 219 had smoked a cigarette within the past 30 days. Smoking was higher among adolescents who used e-cigarettes (19.1%); hookah (18.3%); noncigarette combustible tobacco (19.2%); or smokeless tobacco (18.8%).

The study’s senior author Benjamin W. Chaffee, DDS, PhD, assistant professor at UCSF School of Dentistry says, “In the last few years, research has focused on the potential of e-cigarettes to engage never-smoking adolescents in tobacco use. Our findings confirm that the use of the full range of tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, cigars, tobacco water pipes, and smokeless tobacco, is associated with greater odds of future cigarette smoking.”

From Dimensions of Dental Hygiene. April 2018;16(4):14.