Importance of a Balanced Public Health Approach When Assessing Recent Patterns in the Prevalence of Adult e-Cigarette Use in the US
Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: The prevalence of e-cigarette use among US adults steadily increased between the early 2010s and 2018, 1 a pattern partially associated with its appealing flavors, accessibility and ease of use, potential to assist with tobacco cessation, and lack of policy restrictions on product marketing and sales at the local and national levels during this period.Boakye and colleagues 2 estimated the national prevalence of current (past 30 days) and daily e-cigarette use among US adults in 2017, 2018, and 2020 using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, providing data that revealed potential changes in the patterns of adult e-cigarette use after 2018.Their findings suggest that the prevalence of current e-cigarette use among adults increased between 2017 (4.4%) and 2018 (5.5%) and slightly decreased in 2020 (5.1%).The decrease in 2020 was mainly associated with reduced use among those aged 18 to 20 years (from 18.9% to 15.6%).In contrast, the authors found that daily e-cigarette use increased consistently across the 3 years (1.5% in 2017, 2.1% in 2018, and 2.3% in 2020), with the most significant increase observed among young adults aged 21 to 24 years (2.6% in 2017, 4.4% in 2018, and 6.6% in 2020).In addition, the prevalence of current e-cigarette use significantly increased among those who never smoked combustible cigarettes, remained unchanged among current combustible cigarette smokers, and decreased among combustible cigarette smokers who attempted to quit in the past year.To decipher the epidemiological patterns underlying these recent changes in the prevalence of adult e-cigarette use, a balanced public health approach is needed.3 On the one hand, e-cigarettes +
Source: JAMA Network Open
Institutions: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Rutgers Health
Language: English
Subfield: Physiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,000
OpenAlex ID: W4286560296