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
. 2024 Sep:156:108075.
doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2024.108075. Epub 2024 May 25.

Does the time to nicotine dependence vary by internalizing symptoms for young people who use e-cigarettes? An analysis of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) study, (Waves 1-5; 2013-2019)

Abigail Adjei  1 , Anna V Wilkinson  2 , Baojiang Chen  3 , Dale S Mantey  4 , Melissa B Harrell  5
Affiliations

Does the time to nicotine dependence vary by internalizing symptoms for young people who use e-cigarettes? An analysis of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) study, (Waves 1-5; 2013-2019)

Abigail Adjei et al. Addict Behav. 2024 Sep.

Abstract

Objective: To determine the relationship between past-year internalizing symptoms and the time to first report of signs of nicotine dependence among young people.

Methods: Secondary analysis using data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) (Waves 1-5; 2013-2019). The study included 2,102 (N = 5,031,691) young people (age 12-23 years) who reported past-30-day (P30D) e-cigarette use in one or more waves. Kaplan Meier curves, stratified by past year internalizing symptoms were used to estimate the time to the first report of three nicotine dependence symptoms (i.e., use within 30 min of waking, cravings, and really needing to use) following the first P30D e-cigarette use. Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate crude and adjusted hazard ratios (AHR), comparing any past year internalizing symptoms to no past year internalizing symptoms.

Results: We found no significant differences between past year internalizing symptoms and the time to the first report of cravings (AHR = 1.30, 95 % CI = 92-1.85), really needing to use (AHR = 1.31; 95 % CI = 0.92-1.89) and use within 30 min of waking for follow-up times 0-156 weeks (AHR = 0.84; 95 % CI = 0.55-1.30) and > 156 weeks (AHR = 0.41; 95 % CI = 0.04-4.67) respectively.

Conclusion: Past year internalizing symptoms did not modify the time to the first report of nicotine dependence among youth with P30D e-cigarette use. Further research is needed to understand how changing internalizing symptoms and e-cigarette use frequency influence nicotine dependence over time and, how this relationship impacts cessation behavior.

Keywords: E-cigarette use; Internalizing symptoms; Nationally representative; Nicotine dependence; Young people.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Dr. Harrell was an expert witness for the State of Minnesota in its case against Juul Labs and Altria. Dr. Mantey was a consultant for the State of Minnesota in its case against Juul Labs and Altria.” The other authors have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Eligibility Criteria.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Cumulative probability for the time to first report of nicotine dependence symptoms by internalizing symptoms (any vs. no) among P30D e-cigarette users (n = 2,102, N = 5,031,691), PATH (Waves 2–5; 2014–2019).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Audrain-McGovern J, Rodriguez D, Testa S, Alexander E, & Pianin S (2021). Adolescent E-cigarette onset and escalation: associations with internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Journal of Adolescent Health., 68(4), 801–807. 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2020.09.033 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bainter T, Selya AS, & Oancea SC (2020). A key indicator of nicotine dependence is associated with greater depression symptoms, after accounting for smoking behavior. PLoS One, 15(5), Article e0233656. 10.1371/journal.pone.0233656 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Baker TB, Breslau N, Covey L, & Shiffman S (2012). DSM criteria for tobacco use disorder and tobacco withdrawal: a critique and proposed revisions for DSM-5. Addiction, 107(2), 263–275. 10.1111/j.1360-0443.2011.03657.x - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Barrington-Trimis JL, Berhane K, Unger JB, et al. (2015). Psychosocial factors associated with adolescent electronic cigarette and cigarette use. Pediatrics, 136(2), 308–317. 10.1542/peds.2015-0639 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Barrington-Trimis JL, Yang Z, Schiff S, et al. (2020). E-cigarette product characteristics and subsequent frequency of cigarette smoking. Pediatrics, 145(5), Article e20191652. 10.1542/peds.2019-1652 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources