Association between the implementation of tobacco control policies and adolescent vaping in 44 lower-middle, upper-middle, and high-income countries.

Introduction:
This text presents the results of a study on the association between the implementation of tobacco control policies and adolescent vaping in 44 lower-middle, upper-middle, and high-income countries. The study uses data from WHO's Global Youth Tobacco Survey and WHO's report on global tobacco epidemic to estimate the prevalence of adolescent vaping and test the association between implementation of WHO tobacco control policies and adolescent e-cigarette use.

Key Points:

* The study found that the overall weighted prevalence of adolescent vaping and frequent vaping in the past 30 days was 8.6% and 1.7%, respectively.
* The study found that for five of WHO's policies (monitoring, smoking-free environment, cessation programs, health warning and advertising bans), their association with adolescent vaping was inconclusive because of large variation of their effects across countries.
* Higher tax on combustible tobacco products was associated with higher adolescent vaping (> = 75% tax vs < 25% tax; odds ratio = 2.58; 95% CI, 1.25-5.21).
* The study found that taxation was the only of WHO's six MPOWER policies to be consistently associated with past 30-day vaping and past 30-day frequent vaping in all models.
* The study found that there was large variation in the effect of policies such as monitoring, smoke-free policies, warning and advertising bans on adolescent vaping.
* The study found that adolescents living in countries where taxes comprise 75% of the cost of cigarettes were at 2.58 higher odds of past 30-day vaping and at 6.18 higher odds of past 30-day frequent vaping compared to adolescents living in countries where taxes comprised <25% of the cost of cigarettes.

Main Message:
The study found that the implementation of five of WHO's tobacco control policies had an inconclusive association with adolescent vaping, and that higher tax on combustible tobacco products was associated with higher adolescent vaping. The study highlights the need for further research on the impact of tobacco control policies on adolescent vaping and the potential need for e-cigarette specific policies to discourage adolescent vaping.

Chan GCK, Gartner C, Lim C, et al. Association between the implementation of tobacco control policies and adolescent vaping in 44 lower-middle, upper-middle, and high-income countries. Addiction (Abingdon, England). 2022;117(8):2296-2305. doi:10.1111/add.15892