<
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/aug/23/vaping-found-to-be-the-biggest-risk-factor-for-teenage-tobacco-smoking>
"E-cigarette use is the single strongest risk factor for adolescents taking up
tobacco smoking, outranking social norms, poor mental health and misperceptions
about smoking harms, research published on Wednesday has found.
The findings come from 4,266 Victorian students aged 12 to 17 who anonymously
took part in the 2017 Australian Secondary School Students Alcohol and Drug
Survey (Assad), with researchers then focusing on 3,410 students who reported
never having smoked even part of a cigarette.
The students were asked questions about their use of substances, mental health,
social groups, school absenteeism and e-cigarette use. They were also asked how
likely they believed they were to be smoking cigarettes in the next year.
More than one in 10 of the students who said they had never smoked were
nonetheless susceptible to tobacco smoking, the study, led by Cancer Council
Victoria and the University of Melbourne, found.
Published in the
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, it
found the strongest factor for susceptibility to future smoking was having ever
smoked e-cigarettes. Four other factors – perceiving smokers to be more popular
than non-smokers, having at least one close friend that smokes, perceiving
smoking one or two cigarettes occasionally as not dangerous, and having
symptoms of depression – were also independently associated with vulnerability
to smoking.
Prof Sarah Durkin, a co-author of the study and principal research fellow at
the Centre for Behavioural Research at Cancer Council Victoria, said the
findings were consistent with data released in May which found an increase in
tobacco smoking among 14- to 17-year-olds for the first time in about two
decades. It is also consistent with other international studies that have found
young people who vape are three times as likely to take up smoking, Durkin
said."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
