Almost 11 million adults use e-cigarettes in the United States, and the majority are under the age of 35 years, according to the American Heart Association.
As of 2016, an estimated 4.5% of adults – more than 10.8 million individuals – used e-cigarettes every day or some days, which defined current use for the 466,842 people who responded to the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey and were included in the study conducted by the AHA’s Tobacco Regulation and Addiction Center and published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Based on that survey data, an estimated 51% of current users were under the age of 35 years in 2016. Daily use was highest among those aged 18-24 years, and of those respondents, 44% said that they had never been regular cigarette users. “It’s particularly disturbing to see these younger people who have never been regular cigarette smokers taking up the use of e-cigarettes, perhaps with the assumption that this alternative nicotine delivery system has been proven to be safe,” said Rose Marie Robertson, MD, who is the AHA’s chief science and medical officer.
The analysis also showed that about 60% of e-cigarette users were men and that use was higher among LGBT people. The first-ever estimates of current use by state put the prevalence highest in Oklahoma at 7.0% and lowest in South Dakota (3.1%) and the District of Columbia (2.3%), the AHA said.
The study was funded through a grant from the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products.
SOURCE: Mirbolouk M et al. Ann Intern Med. 2018 Aug 28. doi: 10.7326/M17-3440.