Electronic cigarettes and conventional cigarette use among US adolescents: A cross-sectional study
This study looked at the associations between vaping and smoking in American teens. Researchers used data from the 2011 and 2012 National Youth Tobacco Surveys.
What it Found
The results just show that vapers are more likely to be smokers and smokers who’d vaped were less likely to have quit in the last year.
The study was widely used as evidence of a gateway effect, and the authors concluded:
“Use of e-cigarettes does not discourage, and may encourage, conventional cigarette use among US adolescents.”
Their press release went even further: “E-cigarettes: Gateway to nicotine addiction for U.S. teens, says UCSF study.”
What’s Wrong With it?
The study tells us one thing: the people who vape are more likely to be smokers. That’s it. To confidently conclude that the vaping caused the smoking is pretty much absurd.
Carl V. Phillips drives home how critical this problems with the study are. He points out that all the findings would also be consistent with the perfect scenario: that every single vaper is using e-cigs to quit smoking.
If they’d asked which came first, it could have given a little bit of a sign of what was actually going on. But they didn’t.
Analysis of the Study
Clive Bates: Cease and desist: making false claims about the gateway effect
Brad Rodu: UCSF redefines youth smoking; Journal’s peer-review fails
