Students' Cigarette Smoking and the Perceived Nicotine Content of Their E-cigarettes

Introduction: This text is a study on the relationship between smoking behavior and perceived nicotine exposure from e-cigarettes among middle and high school students. The study uses data from the 2016 Monitoring the Future survey and examines the association between smoking status and the type of e-cigarette mist students believe they last used. The study also looks at the perceived nicotine content of e-cigarettes among ever-smokers and current smokers.

Key Points:

* The study found that there is a significant relationship between smoking behavior and reportedly vaping nicotine or just flavors.
* With increasing smoking intensity, an increasing proportion of students report they are vaping nicotine, while a decreasing proportion report just flavors.
* Substantially larger proportions of never smokers and 30-day nonsmokers report vaping just flavors compared with regular or frequent smokers.
* In 2016, 33.4% of 12th grade students reported ever vaping, and 12.3% reported vaping in the past 30 days.
* Among 12th graders, prevalence of vaping nicotine is lowest among never smokers and non-current smokers (14.3% and 18.1 %) and highest among current and frequent smokers (61.3% and 60.9%, p < 0.01).
* The study also found that most nonsmoking students perceive limited nicotine exposure from vaping.
* The study suggests that future research should evaluate the accuracy of self-reported e-cigarette nicotine content and monitor students who are consciously using nicotine-based e-cigarettes.

Main Message: The study highlights the need for improved surveillance assessments of youth use of e-cigarettes and the importance of accurately evaluating the level of nicotine exposure among youth. The results offer some reassurance that most students who vape are not intentionally inhaling nicotine, but a subset of those students may be wrong about the absence of nicotine in their e-cigarettes. The low prevalence and frequency of e-cigarette use among nonsmoking youth, combined with unprecedented declines in students' cigarette smoking, offer hopeful signs for the future. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's recent regulatory authority over e-cigarettes may raise awareness about the presence of nicotine in e-cigarettes and influence youth patterns of use. The study's findings are important for regulatory matters related to e-cigarettes and youth nicotine exposure.

Tam, Jamie, and Kenneth E. Warner. “Students’ Cigarette Smoking and the Perceived Nicotine Content of Their E-Cigarettes.” American Journal of Preventive Medicine 55, no. 3 (2018): 376–83.