E-cigarette and tobacco use patterns among U.S. adolescents

Last year, 28% of e-cigarette users said they started smoking no later than age 14, compared to about 9% in 2014.  A new study led by U-M School of Nursing researchers examined e-cigarette and tobacco use patterns associated with tobacco use disorder and substance use disorder symptoms among adolescents.

While the researchers did not look specifically at what caused the increase, study author Rebecca Evans-Polce, assistant research scientist at the U-M School of Nursing, said the perception that e-cigarettes aren’t as harmful or addictive as smoking cigarettes could be partly to blame.

“I’m not sure you would expect big changes in such a short period for those other products,” she said. “On the other hand, use of e-cigarettes has skyrocketed in the past five years. Also, it’s important to note that for cigarettes especially, kids are still using early. Over half of kids who reported ever using cigarettes by age 16 or 17 reported starting by age 14.”

Evans-Polce and her colleagues used data from 26,662 participants, ages 16 and 17, from the National Youth Tobacco Survey.

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