Tag: Monitoring the Future

  • U.S. Youth Nicotine Vaping Down in 2021

    U.S. Youth Nicotine Vaping Down in 2021

    Photo: eldarnurkovic

    Nicotine vaping among U.S. adolescents was down significant in 2021, according to the most recent Monitoring the Future survey of substance use behaviors and related attitudes among eighth, 10th, and 12th graders in the United States.

    Among eighth graders, 12.1 percent reported vaping nicotine in the past year in 2021, compared to 16.6 percent in 2020. Among 10th graders, 19.5 percent reported vaping nicotine in the past year in 2021, compared to 30.7 percent in 2020. For 12th graders, the share reporting nicotine vaping in 2021 was 26.6 percent, compared to 34.5 percent in 2020.

    Youth cigarette smoking fell to record lows this year, with past-month smoking rates of 4.1 percent for 12th graders, 1.8 percent for 10th graders and 1.1 percent for eighth graders.

    Youth consumption of alcohol and illicit substances declined as well. “We have never seen such dramatic decreases in drug use among teens in just a one-year period. These data are unprecedented and highlight one unexpected potential consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, which caused seismic shifts in the day-to-day lives of adolescents,” said Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in a statement.

    Despite the decrease in consumption, anti-vaping activists insisted that youth vaping remains a problem. “While this is a decline since youth e-cigarette rates peaked in 2019, it is nearly the same level as in 2018 (20.9 percent) when the U.S. Surgeon General, the FDA and other public health authorities declared youth e-cigarette use to be a public health epidemic,” said Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids in a statement.

    The authors of the Monitoring the Future survey said this year’s results should be treated with caution due to the Covid-19 pandemic and remote learning. “Students who took the survey at home may not have had the same privacy or may not have felt as comfortable truthfully reporting substance use as they would at school, when they are away from their parents,” they noted.

  • Rise of Youth Vaping Slowing

    Rise of Youth Vaping Slowing

    Photo: Aliaksandr Barouski – Dreamstime.com

    The increase in U.S. teenage vaping seen from 2017 to 2019 has halted in 2020, according to new research published by the JAMA Network. The study also found that there was a significant decline in the use of Juul products, countered by increases in the use of other vapor brands.

    In 2020, Monitoring the Future surveyed 8,660 students in 10th and 12th grade. Nicotine vaping prevalence in 2020 was 22 percent for past 30-day use, 32 percent for past 12-month use and 41 percent for lifetime use; these levels did not significantly change from 2019. Daily nicotine vaping significantly declined from 9 percent to 7 percent over 2019 to 2020.

    The authors of the study speculate that the rise of youth vaping has slowed because of “noteworthy events” during late 2019 and early 2020. The e-cigarette and vaping–associated lung injury epidemic that received considerable media attention in the second half of 2019 may have deterred use by increasing adolescent perceptions of harm from vaping.

    What’s more, on Feb.7, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began enforcement against the sale of e-cigarette cartridges with flavors other than tobacco or menthol. This FDA action came after the decision by market leader Juul Labs to voluntarily stop selling most of their its cartridges preferred by youth.

    In addition, the federal minimum age for legal e-cigarette purchase changed from 18 to 21 years on December 20, 2019, thereby potentially reducing youth access to vaping products.

    “We are encouraged that according to the paper in JAMA Pediatrics underage use of Juul products, ‘dropped dramatically,’ which shows the importance of evidence-based interventions,” Juul said in a press release.

    “We will continue to combat underage use of vapor products, which is unacceptable, by working with states toward full implementation and enforcement of Tobacco 21 and supporting [the] FDA’s [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] active enforcement against illicit and illegally marketed products, such as disposables, that jeopardize the category and its harm reduction potential for adult smokers.”

    The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK) called for more action against e-cigarettes.

    “The 2020 Monitoring the Future survey results released today provide fresh evidence that youth e-cigarette use remains at epidemic levels in the United States and that young people continue to have easy access to the flavored products that have fueled this youth nicotine addiction crisis,” CTFK President Matthew L. Myers wrote in a statement.

    “These results further demonstrate that as long as any flavored e-cigarettes are left on the market, kids will get their hands on them and we will not end this crisis. Action to eliminate flavored e-cigarettes and other flavored tobacco products that lure kids, including menthol cigarettes, is more critical than ever given the growing evidence about the impact of smoking and vaping on Covid-19.”

  • Youth Smoking Down Despite More Vaping

    Youth Smoking Down Despite More Vaping

    Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive

    Cigarette and smokeless tobacco prevalence among U.S. adolescents declined more rapidly between 2012 and 2019 than in previous periods, according to a new study.

    An analysis by the University of Michigan (UM) and Georgetown University shows that past 30-day and daily use of both cigarettes and smokeless tobacco fell more rapidly since 2012, even as e-cigarette use began to increase—leading to historical low levels of both cigarette use and smokeless tobacco among teens in the United States.

    “While the increases in e-cigarettes are indeed concerning and is something we need to address and reverse, the decreases in other tobacco products, in particular, cigarettes—the most concerning form of tobacco use—are accelerating,” said lead researcher Rafael Meza, associate professor of epidemiology and global health at UM’s School of Public Health, in an article on the UM’s website.

    Utilizing data from the nationally representative Monitoring the Future survey at the UM from 1991 to 2019, Meza and his colleagues examined the use prevalence of tobacco products in the last 30 days among key sociodemographic groups.

    They found that daily smoking prevalence among 12th grade boys increased 4.9 percent annually 1991 to 1998 but saw annual declines of 8 percent between 1998 and 2006 and 1.6 percent from 2006 to 2012. However, from 2012 to 2019, prevalence declined at a 17 percent annual rate. Overall, daily smoking prevalence among 12th graders fell to about 2 percent by 2019.

    David Levy

    “This is an astoundingly low rate, and our goal from a public health perspective should be to keep smoking at this rate or lower,” said researcher David Levy, of Georgetown University’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.

    Meza said the results are important because while e-cigarettes are concerning on their own, there have been concerns that the increase in vaping could result in an uptick in the use of other tobacco products that could potentially upend the declines seen over the past decades.

    “But in contrast, what we found is that the decline in smoking has accelerated,” he said.

  • Record Marijuana Use Among Young Adults

    Record Marijuana Use Among Young Adults

    Photo: Rolf Hansen from Pixabay

    The vaping of marijuana and nicotine among those aged 19 to 22 more than doubled between 2017 and 2019, according to the University of Michigan’s annual U.S. national Monitoring the Future (MTF) panel study.
     
    In addition, use of marijuana in any form in 2019 among young adults ages 19 to 22 was at or near the highest levels seen over the past four decades.
     
    Between 2017 and 2019, the percentage of adults aged 19 to 22 who vaped marijuana at least once in the past 30 days increased from 5 percent to 14 percent among full-time college students and from 8 percent to 17 percent among those not in college.
     
    Similarly, between 2017 and 2019, the 30-day prevalence of vaping nicotine increased from 6 percent to 22 percent among college students and from 8 percent to 18 percent among adults aged 19 to 22 not in college.
     
    “This doubling to tripling of prevalence of vaping marijuana and vaping nicotine over just two years are among the largest increases in MTF history for any substance since the study began over 40 years ago,” said John Schulenberg, principal investigator of the MTF study. “This is a worrisome trend given the health risks associated with vaping, including an increased risk of Covid-19 and the addictive properties of nicotine.”