We have published a number of studies over the past two years on e-cigarettes and teenagers, but none have looked at reasons for trying e-cigarettes and then continuing to use them on a regular basis until this week, Bold et al. (peds.2016-0895) share the results of longitudinal survey data in an interesting article being released in our journal. The authors surveyed middle and high school students at two points (Fall 2013 and Spring 2014) to see if they had tried e-cigarettes in the first survey and then were still using them at the second time point and if so, why they chose to vape.
Several interesting findings are shared in this study as being the impetus for ongoing e-cigarette smoking beyond an initial trial including their low cost, their ability to be used in places where tobacco products are not, and their rationale to get teens to switch from trying regular cigarettes. While the results are important to read about, it’s the take-away message from this study that is probably most useful—i.e. the need to develop interventions to counter the reasons why teens continue with e-cigarettes once they try them. Hopefully some interventions will come to mind when you review what the survey data reveals in this concerning study.
