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. 2019 Jun 1:199:10-17.
doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2019.01.043. Epub 2019 Mar 15.

Association of electronic cigarette vaping and subsequent smoking relapse among former smokers

Hongying Dai  1 , Adam M Leventhal  2
Affiliations

Association of electronic cigarette vaping and subsequent smoking relapse among former smokers

Hongying Dai et al. Drug Alcohol Depend. .

Abstract

Background: Former combustible cigarette smokers who vape e-cigarettes after quitting smoking may experience health benefits if post-quit vaping prevents smoking relapse.

Methods: Former combustible cigarette smokers aged >18 that were recent (quit ≤ 12 months) or long-term (quit > 12 months) quitters at baseline were re-surveyed at 1-year follow-up in the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) U.S. nationally-representative longitudinal study. Associations of baseline e-cigarette vaping status (never use, prior use, current occasional use, and current regular use) and smoking relapse (vs. abstinence) at follow-up were estimated.

Results: Among recent quitters (N = 884), the prevalence of follow-up smoking relapse was 31.6%, 39.0%, 51.6%, and 31.9% among never (N = 233), prior (N = 399), current occasional (N = 56), and current regular (N = 196) baseline e-cigarette users, respectively. Baseline e-cigarette use was not associated with smoking relapse at follow-up after covariate adjustment. In long-term quitters (n = 3210), follow-up smoking relapse was 1.8%, 10.4%, 9.6%, and 15.0% among never (N = 2479), prior (N = 588), current occasional (N = 45), and current regular (N = 98) baseline e-cigarette users, respectively. Both prior use (AOR = 2.00, CI [1.25-3.20]) and current regular use of e-cigarettes (AOR = 3.77, CI [1.48-9.65]) had higher odds of subsequent smoking relapse as compared to never e-cigarette users after covariate adjustment. Among relapsers, baseline e-cigarette vaping was not associated with smoking frequency or intensity at follow-up.

Conclusions: Vaping more than one year after quitting smoking was associated with smoking relapse at 12-month follow-up in a nationally-representative sample. Further studies are needed to evaluate whether this association is causal.

Keywords: Adults; E-Cigarettes; PATH study; Quit smoking; Smoking; Smoking relapse.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interests

No conflict declared.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Flowchart for participants included in the final analytic sample.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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