Half of surveyed users did not know which brand they used
Half of teens who use e-cigarettes reported vaping no particular brand, and about a third reported using e-cigarette devices for substances other than nicotine, according to an analysis of recent survey data by researchers from the CDC.
The most commonly reported e-cigarette used by the middle school and high school students participating in the 2015 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) was the heavily promoted brand ‘blu’, manufactured by Fontem Ventures-Imperial Brands (formerly Imperial Tobacco Group).
Roughly one in four surveyed teen e-cigarette users (26.4%) reported using that brand, while 12.2% reported using the next most popular brand, ‘VUSE’, manufactured by R.J. Reynolds.
The survey results were reported Thursday in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
“Electronic cigarettes are now the most commonly used tobacco product among U.S. youths; in 2015, 5.3% of middle school students and 16% of high school students reported using e-cigarettes in the past 30 days,” CDC researcher Tushar Singh, MD, PhD, and colleagues wrote, adding that not much has been known about the brands preferred by teens and the substances used in e-cigarette devices.
The analytic sample of the 2015 NYTS included 4,021 students who reported ever using e-cigarettes, “even once or twice.” Respondents were asked what brands of e-cigarettes they had used, with eight specific brands listed, and whether they had ever used an e-cigarette device for vaping a substance other than nicotine.
Data were weighted to account for the complex survey design and to adjust for nonresponse. Prevalence estimates were also reported for the type of e-cigarette ever used, brands, and whether e-cigarettes were used for substances other than nicotine.
A total of 13.5% of sixth through eighth graders and 37.7% of ninth through 12th graders reported ever-use of e-cigarettes.
Among the adolescents reporting ever having used an e-cigarette, 14.5% used only disposable e-cigarettes, 53.4% used only rechargeable/refillable e-cigarettes, and 32.1% used both types.
Half of the student respondents (50.7%, representing 3.18 million teens) did not know the brand of the e-cigarette they had used.
Use of e-cigarettes for a substance other than nicotine was similar among middle school (33.7%) and high school (32.2%) users, and it was higher among males than females (37.3% of high school male e-cigarette users versus 26.2% of high school female respondents).
In a separate survey of high school age e-cigarette users in Connecticut, reported last year in Pediatrics, 18% of respondents reported using cannabis in an e-cigarette device.
“In the present analysis, it is unknown whether students who had used an e-cigarette for a non-nicotine substance had also used an e-cigarette for nicotine, which might underestimate nicotine use,” Singh and colleagues wrote.
“Nicotine content in e-cigarettes is of public health concern because exposure to nicotine is the main cause of tobacco product dependence, and nicotine exposure during adolescence, a critical period for brain development, can cause addiction, can harm brain development, and could lead to sustained tobacco product use among youths.”
Study limitations cited by the researchers included the self-reported nature of the survey, the limited number of specific e-cigarette brands included in the survey, and the lack of data on which substances other than nicotine were being used.
The researchers concluded that increased monitoring of product types, brands, and ingredients preferred by adolescent e-cigarette users is warranted, “to guide measures to prevent and reduce use of e-cigarettes among youths.”