Young People's Use of E-Cigarettes across the United Kingdom: Findings from Five Surveys 2015-2017.

Linda Bauld,Ann Mcneill,Brian Eastwood,Allison Ford,Graham Moore,Martin Dockrell,Anne Mackintosh,Deborah Arnott,Hazel Cheeseman

doi:10.3390/ijerph14090973

Abstract

Concern has been expressed about the use of e-cigarettes among young people. Our study reported e-cigarette and tobacco cigarette ever and regular use among 11–16 year olds across the UK. Data came from five large scale surveys with different designs and sampling strategies conducted between 2015 and 2017: The Youth Tobacco Policy Survey; the Schools Health Research Network Wales survey; two Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) Smokefree Great Britain-Youth Surveys; and the Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey. Cumulatively these surveys collected data from over 60,000 young people. For 2015/16 data for 11–16 year olds: ever smoking ranged from 11% to 20%; regular (at least weekly) smoking between 1% and 4%; ever use of e-cigarettes 7% to 18%; regular (at least weekly) use 1% to 3%; among never smokers, ever e-cigarette use ranged from 4% to 10% with regular use between 0.1% and 0.5%; among regular smokers, ever e-cigarette use ranged from 67% to 92% and regular use 7% to 38%. ASH surveys showed a rise in the prevalence of ever use of e-cigarettes from 7% (2016) to 11% (2017) but prevalence of regular use did not change remaining at 1%. In summary, surveys across the UK show a consistent pattern: most e-cigarette experimentation does not turn into regular use, and levels of regular use in young people who have never smoked remain very low.

Highlights

Considerable concern has been expressed about the use of electronic cigarettes or nicotine vapourisers by young people [1]
YTPS data came from Wave 8 of the UK Youth Tobacco Policy Survey (YTPS), a long-running, repeat cross-sectional study examining the impact of tobacco policies on adolescents
A proactive and pragmatic approach is being taken towards electronic cigarette use in the UK, including promoting them as less harmful nicotine delivery devices to adult smokers who cannot or will not stop smoking, while introducing policies to protect never smoking youth from using e-cigarettes including banning almost all forms of marketing and introducing age of sale laws

Summary

Introduction

Considerable concern has been expressed about the use of electronic cigarettes or nicotine vapourisers by young people [1]. Some studies have suggested that these products may serve as a ‘gateway’ to tobacco use, with young people who experiment with e-cigarettes being more likely to go on to try tobacco smoking in longitudinal studies [2]. Tobacco use remains the leading preventable cause of death in the world and preventing youth uptake is an important global public health priority [3]. Recorded increases in e-cigarette use among the young have coincided with continued declines in youth smoking rates in the UK, USA and in other countries where e-cigarette. Res. Public Health 2017, 14, 973; doi:10.3390/ijerph14090973 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph

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