Unlike Data from U.S., Data on Youth Electronic Cigarette Use in Poland is Concerning

A new set of cross-sectional surveys of e-cigarette use among Polish students ages 15-19 was just published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.(See: Goniewicz ML, et al. Rise in electronic cigarette use among adolescents in Poland. Journal of Adolescent Health 2014; 55:713-715.)Like its U.S. counterpart (the National Youth Tobacco Survey), the survey from Poland found a dramatic increase in experimentation with electronic cigarettes during the period 2010/11 - 2013/14. Experimentation increased from 16.8% to 62.1%.Different from the U.S. study, however, the Poland study found very high rates of current use of electronic cigarettes, which rose from 5.5% to 29.9%.Most alarming, and completely different from results observed in the U.S., the prevalence of cigarette smoking during the study period increased substantially, rising from 23.9% to 38.0%.The Rest of the StoryIn and of itself, the increase in electronic cigarette experimentation in Poland is to be expected. However, there are two aspects of the data which are alarming.First, not only did experimentation rise, but the rates of current use of electronic cigarettes are substantially higher than they are in the U.S. This suggests that not only are Polish youth trying these products, but the products seem to have more of a "stick" factor than they do in the U.S.Second, and more alarming, is the finding that the dramatic increase in electronic cigarette use is occurring in the presence of a substantial increase in cigarette ...

Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - October 23, 2014 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs