Novel tobacco products including electronic cigarette and heated tobacco products increase risk of allergic rhinitis and asthma in adolescents: analysis of Korean youth survey.

Introduction:
This text provides an analysis of the relationship between the use of novel tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes (EC) and heated tobacco products (hTP), and the risk of allergic rhinitis (aR) and asthma in adolescents. The study uses data from a large survey of Korean middle and high school students to examine the effects of these products on current aR and asthma.

Key Points:

* The study found that current CC and ever hTP use was significantly associated with current asthma and aR in adjusted models.
* Current EC showed association with current aR but the association with asthma disappeared in the adjusted model.
* among 18 groups, the groups including current CC use showed higher risk of current aR and asthma than never hTP-never EC-never CC group.
* The odds ratio of current asthma especially increased more in those who used EC and/or hTP with CC concurrently than those in the never hTP-never EC-current CC user group.
* The study did not reflect the long-term effect of EC or hTP as the introduction of liquid type EC in 2013 and hTP in 2017 in Korea was not considered.
* The status of use of hTP was only identified by “ever” and “never” and the definition of former users in CC and EC included everything from participants who used CC or EC once in a life time to previous heavy smoker who quitted a month ago.

Main Message:
The study suggests that using EC and/or hTP in adolescents might enhance the adverse effect of CC on aR and asthma. Therefore, adolescent exposure to these products should be strictly avoided until the health effects of these products can be fully assessed. The study highlights the need for long-term and prospective studies to fully understand the causality of the relationship between the use of novel tobacco products and aR and asthma in adolescents.

Chung SJ, Kim BK, Oh Jh, et al. Novel tobacco products including electronic cigarette and heated tobacco products increase risk of allergic rhinitis and asthma in adolescents: analysis of Korean youth survey. allergy. 2020;75(7):1640-1648. doi:10.1111/all.14212