According to research presented at the European Respiratory Society International Congress in Barcelona, teenagers with parents who smoke are 55% more likely to try e-cigarettes. In a large study of Irish teenagers, the researchers also found that the proportion of those who have tried e-cigarettes is rapidly increasing, and while boys are more likely to use them, girls are adopting e-cigarettes at a faster rate.
Source: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain. Researchers have emphasized the risks associated with nicotine addiction and are calling for more effective regulation to protect children and teenagers.
A team from the TobaccoFree Research Institute (TFRI) in Dublin, Ireland conducted a study which examined data from 6,216 children aged 17 and 18, including information on whether their parents smoked during their upbringing. The research suggests that teenagers with smoking parents are around 55% more likely to try electronic cigarettes, and around 51% more likely to try smoking.
The team also conducted the most comprehensive analysis to date of the use of e-cigarettes among Irish teenagers by combining several Irish datasets. This included information on over 10,000 Irish teenagers aged 16 to 17, the total number of teenagers who had tried or regularly used e-cigarettes, and how this changed over time. The results showed that the proportion of teenagers who had tried e-cigarettes increased from 23% in 2014 to 39% in 2019.
The main reasons teenagers try electronic cigarettes are curiosity (66%) and friends using them (29%). Only 3% of people said they wanted to quit smoking. The proportion of people who claimed they had never used tobacco before trying electronic cigarettes increased from 32% in 2015 to 68% in 2019.
According to Professor Luke Clancy, CEO of the Tobacco Free Research Institute, there is an increasing trend of Irish teenagers using e-cigarettes, which is also being seen in other parts of the world. While some believe that e-cigarettes are a better alternative to smoking, new research suggests that this does not hold true for teenagers who have not previously tried smoking. Rather, the study indicates that e-cigarettes may be a pathway to nicotine addiction for young people, rather than a means to quit smoking.
Finally, researchers closely examined data from 3,421 16-year-old children to see if there were differences between boys and girls. Although boys were more likely to try or use e-cigarettes, researchers found that the rate of growth was faster among girls. In 2015, 23% of girls reported trying e-cigarettes, compared to 39% in 2019. Additionally, 10% of girls reported currently using e-cigarettes in 2015, which increased to 18% in 2019. The researchers found that having smoking friends and less parental monitoring were the main factors contributing to teenage e-cigarette use, especially among boys.
Dr. Salome Sunday, a researcher, addressed the Congress saying, "We can see that parents and friends have an impact on teenagers' decisions to try e-cigarettes, and this is important because these are factors that we can attempt to change. However, the government needs to take action and establish laws to protect children and young people. We have done this with smoking, and we need to do the same with e-cigarettes.
Dr. Joan Hanafin, Chief Researcher, added that "we can see that there is a rapid change in the number of teenagers using e-cigarettes, which is why we need to continue monitoring the situation in Ireland and around the world. We also plan to study social media to understand how it affects girls' and boys' e-cigarette behavior.
Professor Jonathan Grigg, Chair of the Tobacco Control Committee of the European Respiratory Society, who was not involved in the study, stated that "these findings are concerning not only for Irish teenagers, but for families around the world. We already know that children of smoking parents are more likely to smoke themselves. This study shows that teenagers are also influenced by smoking parents and are beginning to use e-cigarettes and become addicted to nicotine.
This study shows that an increasing number of young people are trying electronic cigarettes, not for the purpose of quitting smoking. This is significant because we know that e-cigarettes are not harmless. Nicotine addiction has deep-rooted impacts and we have found that e-cigarettes can damage the lungs, blood vessels, and brain. We need to do more work to protect children and young people from these harms.
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