Adolescents with no past history or intention of smoking may find themselves in a path of cigarette addiction through the use of e-cigarettes, new research suggests.
Published in the peer-reviewed journal Pediatrics, the research team at Children’s National Hospital examined the data of over 8,000 American adolescents below the age of 18 with past history of smoking.
The findings concluded that adolescents with no past intention or history of smoking traditional cigarettes were at four times higher likelihood of doing so when consuming e-cigarettes.
“E-cigarette use is associated with increased odds of cigarette smoking among adolescents who had no previous smoking intention,” the co-authors concluded in their article.
“E-cigarette use may create intention to smoke and/or nicotine use disorder that lead to onset of cigarette smoking. These findings are instructive for future adolescent smoking prevention efforts.”
The study was authored by Olusegun Owotomo, Haley Strizel, Sean McCabe, Carol Boyd, and Julie Maslowsky.
