Tag: survey

  • Never smokers aren’t using e-cigs, U.K. survey finds

    Results of the New Youth Tobacco Policy Survey conducted by Cancer Research UK show that the majority of youth who have never smoked combustible cigarettes are not using e-cigarettes regularly.

    Of the 1,205 children aged 11-16 who took part in a U.K.-wide survey on e-cigarette use, 12 percent reported “ever” use, 2 percent reported “more than monthly” use and 1 percent reported “more than weekly” use.

    Among never smokers, only 3 percent reported ever use and 0 percent reported “at least monthly” use, indicating that regular e-cigarette use occurs only in youths who also smoked tobacco cigarettes.

    The results of the study reflect earlier research that showed regular e-cigarette use to be extremely rare among nonsmoking youth. The latest survey, which was conducted from August to September 2014, marked the first time questions regarding e-cigarettes were included.

    According to Cancer Research UK scientist and University of Stirling professor Linda Bauld, there is a common perception that the recent increase in e-cigarette use will lead to a new generation of adults who have never smoked but become dependent on nicotine. However, the survey results indicate that youth who have never used tobacco products are not using e-cigarettes regularly and that “experimentation is not translating into regular use.”

    The study will be published in the Nicotine and Tobacco Research journal.

  • E-cigarette use among students triples from 2013-2014

    Current use of e-cigarettes by middle and high school students tripled from 2013 to 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products. The findings were gathered by the 2014 National Youth Tobacco Survey and published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Results from the survey indicate that current e-cigarette use—defined as use on a least one day in the past 30 days—among high school students increased to 13.4 percent 2014 from 4.5 percent in 2013. This marks an increase to 2 million students using e-cigarettes in 2014 from approximately 660,000 students using the devices just one year prior.

    Current e-cigarette use among middle school students increased to 3.9 percent in 2014 from 1.1 percent in 2013, an increase to approximately 450,000 students from 120,000 students. The 2014 survey results mark the first time that current e-cigarette use has surpassed the use of other tobacco products overall—including combustible cigarettes—since the National Youth Tobacco Survey began collecting data on e-cigarette use in 2011.

    Current hookah use among high school students nearly doubled during this same time period, increasing to 9.4 percent in 2014 from 5.2 percent in 2013—an increase from approximately 770,000 students to approximately 1.3 million students. Meanwhile, current hookah use increased among middle school students to 2.5 percent in 2014 (280,000 students) from 1.1 percent (120,000 students) in 2013.

    No decline in the overall use of tobacco products was seen between 2011 in 2014. According to survey results, the overall rates of tobacco product use in 2014 were 7.7 percent for middle school students and 24.6 percent for high school students. The products most commonly used by high school students in 2014 were e-cigarettes, at 13.4 percent; hookah, at 9.4 percent; combustible cigarettes, at 9.2 percent; cigars, at 8.2 percent; smokeless tobacco, at 5.5 percent; snus, at 1.9 percent; and pipes, at 1.5 percent. The products most commonly used in 2014 by middle school students were e-cigarettes, at 3.9 percent; hookah, at 2.5 percent; cigarettes, at 2.5 percent; cigars, at 1.9 percent; smokeless tobacco, 1.6 percent; and pipes, at 0.6 percent. The use of multiple tobacco products was common, with nearly half of all middle and high school students who were classified as current tobacco users using two or more types of tobacco products.

  • ‘E-cigarettes lead to tobacco cessation, not initiation’

    Two new United States surveys have found that 15-21 million U.S. adults used e-cigarettes regularly in 2013-2014; 3.2-4.3 million e-cigarette users no longer smoked cigarettes on a regular basis; and approximately 90 percent of regular e-cigarette users were/are regular cigarette smokers. The studies—which were presented in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, from Feb. 25-28 at the annual meeting of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco—lead their authors to note that regular cigarette smokers were more likely to switch to regular use of less-harmful e-cigarettes than regular e-cigarette users were to transition to combustible cigarette use.

    The first study analyzed 30,136 people from the National Tobacco Behavior Monitor survey. Results indicated that 8.7 percent of U.S. adults reported regular use of e-cigarettes, of which nearly 90 percent reported regular use of combustible cigarettes. More than 97 percent of those surveyed in the first study reported regular e-cigarette use after regular cigarette smoking; 23.7 percent indicated that they no longer use combustible cigarettes on a regular basis; and only 1.3 percent of those who use e-cigarettes regularly reported transitioning to current regular use of combustible cigarettes.

    The second study—which analyzed data from the Total Tobacco Migration Tracker—involved 11,173 people and indicated that 6.1 percent of U.S. adults identified themselves as current, regular e-cigarette users, with more than 91 percent of those e-cigarette users reporting regular use of combustible cigarettes. More than 97 percent reported regular use of e-cigarettes after regular use of combustible cigarettes; 24.5 percent of those who regularly used e-cigarettes no longer reported regular smoking of traditional cigarettes; and only 1.7 percent of current, regular e-cigarette users reported switching to regular use of combustible cigarettes.

    The results of this study lead its authors to determine that smokers of traditional cigarettes were 13.5 times more likely to transition to current, regular use of e-cigarettes than current, regular users of e-cigarettes were to transition to regular use of combustible cigarettes.

    The studies were funded by RAI Services Co. and conducted by a team led by the company’s senior director of regulatory oversight, Geoffrey Curtin.