Summary
Introduction:
This text provides an analysis of a study examining the relationship between tobacco product transitions and sociodemographic factors using data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study. The study focuses on adults and youth and adjusts for gender, age group, race/ethnicity, and daily versus non-daily product use. The analysis also calculates continuous, spline-based estimates of the impact of age on tobacco product transitions.
Key Points:
* The study uses data from the PATH Study, a national longitudinal cohort study of tobacco and nicotine product use behaviors among adults and youth.
* The study focuses on cigarettes and ENDS (electronic nicotine delivery systems) and investigates how transitions between tobacco products changed after 2017 and how these changes depend on age group.
* The study uses multistate transition models and incorporates wave 1 and wave 4 longitudinal survey weights into the model.
* The study finds that the use of ENDS and dual use of ENDS and cigarettes became more persistent for both adults and youth after 2017.
* Older adults who used both products did not become more likely to discontinue cigarette use.
* Youth and young adults became more likely to transition to exclusive ENDS use.
* The study also finds that there were few changes in transition patterns by gender or race/ethnicity for adults or youth.
Main Message:
The increasing persistence of dual use should be accounted for in tobacco policies promoting harm reduction in adults and preventing initiation in youth. Changes in transition patterns among tobacco and ENDS products need to be tracked and accounted for in models forecasting the possible impact of tobacco policies.
Citation
Brouwer AF, Jeon J, Jimenez-Mendoza E, et al. Changing patterns of cigarette and ENDS transitions in the USA: a multistate transition analysis of youth and adults in the PATH Study in 2015-2017 vs 2017-2019. Tobacco control. Published online March 28, 2023. doi:10.1136/tc-2022-057905
