Electronic-cigarette use among young people in Wales: evidence from two cross-sectional surveys
posted 15/04/2015
publication BMJ
Abstract
Objectives To examine the prevalence of electronic(e)-cigarette use, prevalence of e-cigarette and tobacco use by age, and associations of e-cigarette use with sociodemographic characteristics, tobacco and cannabis use among young people in Wales.
Design Data from two nationally-representative cross-sectional surveys undertaken in 2013–2014. Logistic regression analyses, adjusting for school-level clustering, examined sociodemographic characteristics of e-cigarette use, and associations between e-cigarette use and smoking.
Setting Primary and secondary schools in Wales.
Participants Primary-school children aged 10–11 (n=1601) and secondary-school students aged 11–16 (n=9055).
Results Primary-school children were more likely to have used e-cigarettes (5.8%) than tobacco (1.6%). Ever use of e-cigarettes remained more prevalent than ever use of tobacco until age 14–15. Overall, 12.3% of secondary-school students (aged 11–16) reported ever using e-cigarettes, with no differences according to gender, ethnicity or family affluence. The percentage of ‘never smokers’ reporting having used e-cigarettes was 5.3% at age 10–11 to 8.0% at age 15–16. The proportion of children who had ever used an e-cigarette and reported currently smoking increased from 6.9% among 10–11 year olds to 39.2% in 15–16 year olds. Only 1.5% (n=125) of 11–16 year-olds, including 0.3% of never smokers, reported regular e-cigarette use (use at least once a month). Current weekly smokers were 100 times more likely than non-smokers to report regular e-cigarette use (relative risk ratio (RRR=121.15; 95% CI 57.56 to 254.97). Regular e-cigarette use was also more likely among those who had smoked cannabis (RRR 53.03; 95% CI 38.87 to 80.65).
Conclusions Many young people (including never-smokers) have tried e-cigarettes. However, regular use is less common, and is associated with tobacco cigarette use. Longitudinal research is needed to understand age-related trajectories of e-cigarette use and to understand the temporal nature of relationships between e-cigarette and tobacco use.
Strengths and limitations of this study
Data derived from two large, nationally-representatives data sets provide evidence that many young people, including non-smokers aged 10–16 in Wales have used e-cigarettes (5.8% of 10–11 year olds; 12.3% of 11–16 year olds).
Ever use of e-cigarettes is more common than ever use of tobacco for all groups except the oldest secondary-school age group (age 15–16 years).
Only 1.5% of young people aged 11–16 report regular e-cigarette use (ie, use of an e-cigarette at least monthly), which was strongly associated with smoking tobacco and cannabis.
More detailed measures of e-cigarette use, and longitudinal data to understand temporal relationships between e-cigarette and tobacco use, are priorities for further research in this area.
Electronic-cigarette use among young
people in Wales: evidence from two
cross-sectional surveys
