has increased youth e-cigarette use in the USa, between 2014 and 2020, changed conventional smoking behaviors, future intentions to smoke and perceived smoking harms?

Introduction:
This text summarizes a study examining the relationship between e-cigarette use and conventional smoking behaviors, future intentions to smoke, and perceived smoking harms among US youth from 2014 to 2020. The study uses data from two large nationally representative samples, the National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) and Monitoring the Future (MTF), to investigate trends in smoking behavior according to e-cigarette use status.

Key Points:

* The study found that regular smoking decreased among youth who regularly use e-cigarettes in both the NYTS and MTF surveys.
* The percentage of youth who intended to smoke in the future and perceived smoking as harmless also decreased or remained unchanged during the same period.
* The results provide little evidence that e-cigarette use has increased conventional cigarette smoking among youth.
* The study used two large nationally representative samples of US youth, with repeated cross-sectional surveys conducted over six years.
* The analysis controlled for missing data and adjusted for complex survey design.
* The study measured e-cigarette use, cigarette smoking behavior, future intentions to smoke, and perceived smoking harms using validated and consistent measures within each survey.
* The study found similar trends in estimates for each data series, demonstrating the robustness of the results.

Main Message:
The main message of the study is that e-cigarette use has not resulted in an increase in conventional cigarette smoking among US youth. Instead, the study found that regular smoking decreased among youth who regularly use e-cigarettes, and the percentage of youth who intended to smoke in the future and perceived smoking as harmless also decreased or remained unchanged. These findings suggest that e-cigarettes may be displacing cigarette smoking at the population level and provide reassurance that the rise of e-cigarettes has not led to a renormalization of smoking behavior among US youth. however, further efforts are required to discourage e-cigarette use among youth, as it still represents a potential avoidable health risk for non-smoking youth.

Sun T, Lim CCW, Stjepanović D, et al. has increased youth e-cigarette use in the USa, between 2014 and 2020, changed conventional smoking behaviors, future intentions to smoke and perceived smoking harms? addictive behaviors. 2021;123:107073. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2021.107073