Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Mar:156:106992.
doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2022.106992. Epub 2022 Feb 9.

Decreases in smoking and vaping during COVID-19 stay-at-home orders among a cohort of young adults in the United States

Rachel Denlinger-Apte  1 , Cynthia K Suerken  2 , Jennifer Cornacchione Ross  3 , Beth A Reboussin  4 , John Spangler  5 , Kimberly G Wagoner  6 , Erin L Sutfin  7
Affiliations

Decreases in smoking and vaping during COVID-19 stay-at-home orders among a cohort of young adults in the United States

Rachel Denlinger-Apte et al. Prev Med. 2022 Mar.

Abstract

In Spring 2020, most US states and territories implemented stay-at-home orders to slow transmission of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV2, the cause of COVID-19. Little is known about the impact of stay-at-home orders on tobacco and nicotine use including among young adults. The current study examined participants (N = 1727) completing three recent survey waves from a longitudinal cohort of young adults recruited in 2010 from North Carolina and Virginia, USA: Wave 13 (Spring 2019), Wave 14 (Fall 2019), and Wave 15 (Spring 2020) to assess changes in cigarette and e-cigarette use. We conducted logistic regression analyses to compare the odds that participants reported smoking or vaping in Wave 14 relative to Wave 13 to establish if there was a trend of use pre-pandemic. Then, we conducted logistic regression analyses to compare the odds that participants reported smoking or vaping in Wave 15 relative to Wave 14 to determine the impact of COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. When comparing the odds of reporting tobacco use at Wave 14 to Wave 13, no differences emerged (p > 0.05). However, when comparing tobacco use at Wave 15 to Wave 14, participants had 40% lower odds of reporting past 30-day cigarette use (p = 0.02) and 50% lower odds of reporting past 30-day e-cigarette use (p < 0.01). The current study provides initial evidence that young adults may have reduced their tobacco and nicotine use during the stay-at-home orders. However, more work is needed to determine the long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tobacco use and cessation in this population.

Keywords: COVID-19; Cigarettes; E-cigarettes.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Past 30-day cigarette and e-cigarette use by Wave.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Andrasfay T., Goldman N. Reductions in 2020 US life expectancy due to COVID-19 and the disproportionate impact on the black and Latino populations. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 2021;118(5) - PMC - PubMed
    1. Berg C.J., Callanan R., Johnson T.O., et al. Vape shop and consumer activity during COVID-19 non-essential business closures in the USA. Tob. Control. 2021;30(e1):e41–e44. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chaffee B.W., Cheng J., Couch E.T., Hoeft K.S., Halpern-Felsher B. Adolescents’ substance use and physical activity before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. JAMA Pediatr. 2021;175(7):715–722. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cucinotta D., Vanelli M. WHO declares COVID-19 a pandemic. Acta Bio-Med. 2020;91(1):157–160. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Gaiha S.M., Cheng J., Halpern-Felsher B. Association between youth smoking, electronic cigarette use, and COVID-19. J. Adolescent Health. 2020;67(4):519–523. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types