Home Allergy E-Cigarette Use Not Tied to Wheezing in Teens

E-Cigarette Use Not Tied to Wheezing in Teens

Findings similar for e-cigarette use in the past year, 30 days, or seven days

THURSDAY, Oct. 15, 2020 (HealthDay News) — Use of electronic cigarettes by teens is not significantly associated with wheezing, according to a study published online Oct. 13 in JAMA Network Open.

Alayna P. Tackett, Ph.D., from University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and colleagues examined the association between e-cigarette use and self-reported wheezing among 7,049 U.S. adolescents (ages 12 to 17 years) participating in the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health study (Oct. 19, 2015, to Jan. 3, 2018).

The researchers found that the odds of wheezing in the past 12 months were higher for youths who had used e-cigarettes in the past year compared with those who had not (odds ratio [OR], 1.74; P = 0.003). When adjusting for race/ethnicity, household rules about the use of tobacco, contact with a smoker in the previous seven days, and current use of combustible tobacco products, the association of e-cigarette use with wheezing was no longer significant (adjusted OR for e-cigarette use in the past year: 1.37; 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.91 to 2.05; adjusted OR for e-cigarette use in the past 30 days: 1.35; 95 percent CI, 0.63 to 2.88; adjusted OR for e-cigarette use in the past seven days: 0.74; 95 percent CI, 0.28 to 1.97; P = 0.33).

“The findings suggest that other risk factors, including secondhand smoke exposure, may be associated with the development of negative respiratory symptoms among adolescents,” the authors write.

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