CDC study finds more than a quarter-million youth who had never smoked a cigarette have tried e-cigarettes

Tuesday, September 2, 2014 CDC study finds more than a quarter-million youth who had never smoked a cigarette have tried e-cigarettes A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-authored study* found that in 2013, 263,000 young people who had never smoked had used e-cigarettes, compared with 79,000 in 2011. For the study, CDC researchers analyzed data from the 2011, 2012, and 2013 National Youth Tobacco Surveys of middle and high school students to assess associations between e-cigarette use and smoking intentions among U.S. youth who had never smoked conventional cigarettes. For this analysis, researchers used established methods to identify youth who are classified as having smoking intentions. Youth who reported they would definitely not smoke in the next year and reported they would definitely not smoke if offered a cigarette by a friend were defined as not having an intention to smoke. All others were classified as having positive intention to smoke conventional cigarettes. Previous research has demonstrated that these youth are more likely to initiate smoking in the future. Other key findings of the study include: ·         Ever users of e-cigarettes were almost twice as likely to have smoking intentions than never users of e-cigarettes, 43.9% compared with 21.5%. ·         As shown in previous studies, the greater the number of advertising sources (internet, magazine and newspaper, retail environment, and television or movies) to which young people were exposed, the more likely they are to be at risk for initiation of smoking:  §  13% of students who said they had no exposures to such ads had smoking intentions §  20.4% among those who reported exposures from one to two ad sources §  25.6% among those who reported exposures from three to four ad sources. There is evidence that nicotine’s adverse effects on adolescent brain development could result in lasting deficits in cognitive function.  Nicotine is highly addictive.  About three out of every four teen smokers become adult smokers, even if they intend to quit in a few years.  Each day, more than 3,200 American youth smoke their first cigarette.  The Surgeon General has concluded that unless the smoking rate is rapidly reduced, 5.6 million American children alive today – about one in every 13—will die prematurely from a smoking-related disease. The National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) is an annual survey conducted by CDC in collaboration with FDA to provide national data on long-term, intermediate, and short-term indicators key to the design, implementation, and evaluation of comprehensive tobacco prevention and control programs. The NYTS also serves as a baseline for comparing progress toward meeting selected Healthy People 2020 goals for reducing tobacco use among adolescents. More than 50 years since the landmark Surgeon General’s Report linking cigarette smoking to lung cancer, smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States, killing nearly half a million Americans every year.  More than 16 million Americans live with a smoking-related disease.  Smoking-related diseases cost Americans $132 billion a year in direct health care expenses, much of which comes in taxpayer-supported payments.  For additional information on CDC’s work to prevent smoking and tobacco use, please visit www.cdc.gov/tobacco or contact Jennifer Greaser at JGreaser@cdc.gov. * Access to the full publication is available only by subscription.  A CDC summary of the paper’s findings is here: http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/youth/e-cigarettes/index.htm
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