Noncigarette Tobacco Products May Increase Teens’ Risk of Smoking Cigarettes

HealthDay News — Non-cigarette tobacco use is associated with subsequent cigarette smoking among US adolescents, according to a study published in JAMA Pediatrics.

Shannon Lea Watkins, PhD, from the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues estimated the longitudinal correlation between non-cigarette tobacco use and subsequent cigarette smoking among US adolescents. Data were included for 10,384 participants (aged 12 to 17 years at baseline) from waves 1 (September 12, 2013, to December 14, 2014) and 2 (October 23, 2014, to October 30, 2015) of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health study.

The researchers found that 4.6% of all baseline never-smoking youths had tried a cigarette at one-year follow-up and 2.1% had smoked a cigarette within the past 30 days. 

Youths who had ever used e-cigarettes, hookah, non-cigarette combustible tobacco, or smokeless tobacco at baseline had higher cigarette ever use at follow-up (19.1%, 18.3%, 19.2%, and 18.8%, respectively). The odds of past 30-day cigarette use at follow-up were about two-fold higher for ever users of e-cigarettes, hookah, non-cigarette combustible tobacco, and smokeless tobacco (odds ratios, 1.87, 1.92, 1.78, and 2.07), after adjustment for confounding factors. Compared with baseline never tobacco users, youths who had tried more than one type of tobacco product at baseline had 3.81-fold increased adjusted odds of past 30-day cigarette smoking.

“Any use of e-cigarettes, hookah, non-cigarette combustible tobacco, or smokeless tobacco was independently associated with cigarette smoking one year later,” the authors write.

Reference

Watkins SL, Glantz SA, Chaffee BW. Association of noncigarette tobacco product use with future cigarette smoking among youth in the population assessment of tobacco and health (PATH) study, 2013-2015 [published online January 2, 2018]. JAMA Pediatri. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2017.4173