There have been plenty of studies focusing on teenagers and their attitude to vaping. But why are they vaping to begin with? Are they vaping as many adults vape, so they can quit smoking before it becomes a lifelong habit? Or are they trying it as a gateway to move on to smoking cigarettes instead?
The beginning of November saw the release of a study that indicated over a third of US 10th grade students started vaping and then moved on to smoking. This is higher than the percentage of students who don’t vape.
The report has hit the headlines in a big way. It has also led many experts to call for tighter controls over the purchasing of vaping products, as well as where they can be used in public. Are we sleepwalking into a future where teenagers start vaping en masse, before eventually giving up the habit in favour of cigarettes instead?
It was inevitable we would see a kneejerk reaction to the report. However, it turns out the evidence pointing to significant numbers of pre-teens and teenagers vaping before turning to smoking is sparse.
What does the study really say?
There are several facts to be aware of here. Firstly, only six months’ worth of data was used in the study. Secondly, only a little over 3,000 adolescents were questioned as part of the study. Longer-term studies are needed to see if the figures hold up – and even if they do, they are not as dire as many headline writers have made out.
Of the 3,084 pupils who took part, 1,009 confirmed they had tried vaping on at least one occasion. However, the pupils were also asked how many days they vaped for within the last 30-day period. A mere 133 pupils said they had done so on one or two days within that period. Those confirming they had vaped for anything over three days numbered 146.
What is the real percentage at play?
A study focusing on around 3,000 people (of any age or demographic) should be regarded as small. The main conclusion everyone has pounced on here is that 15% of those who vaped often had become smokers by the time the study ended. In contrast, only 1.2% of those who had never tried vaping had started smoking.
So, this tells us that vaping is a clear gateway to start smoking, is that right? Well, not necessarily. If kids have an interest in smoking, they might start vaping first to try it out before switching to cigarettes. On the other hand, they may go straight to cigarettes. Conversely, the kids who have no interest in smoking aren’t likely to go out and try vaping in the first place. The connection between the two is a lot cloudier (a lot smokier, if you will) than many researchers and so-called experts like to point out.
What can we conclude from this study?
The only thing we can conclude with any certainty is that more studies are needed. Moreover, these studies need to last longer and involve a lot more kids to reach any real conclusions over the connection between vaping and smoking. Perhaps some kids smoked initially before trying vaping to help them quit. How many of them ended up failing and going back to smoking?
It is too easy to draw big conclusions from a small study, when those conclusions could be wrong. Overall, the evidence shows that smokers are quitting more easily with the aid of electronic cigarettes, so we shouldn’t let them go up in smoke just yet.
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