Vaping Soars in U.S., According to New Study

Nearly 14 million U.S. adults vaped in 2018, up from just over 11 million adults in 2016, according to a new study published online Sept. 8 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

“An increasing number of individuals are using e-cigarettes, especially in the younger age groups, which suggests that more individuals are becoming addicted to e-cigarettes rather than just experimenting with them, making the increased uptake among tobacco-naive individuals even more concerning,” said lead researcher Olufunmilayo Obisesan, a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease, in Baltimore.

Between 2016 and 2018, young adults aged 18 to 24 years old were the fastest-growing population to start using e-cigarettes. E-cigarette use in that age group increased from 9 percent in 2016 to 15 percent in 2018, Among students, e-cigarette use increased from 6 percent in 2016 to 12 percent in 2018.

E-cigarette use even increased among people who had never smoked traditional cigarettes—from more than 1.4 percent in 2016 to 2.3 percent in 2018, the findings showed.

The increase was seen in all socioeconomic groups, the researchers found.

For the study, the researchers collected data on more than 1 million Americans who took part in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System for 2016 to 2018.