Advertising May Be Contributing to Increased E-Cigarette Consumption Among Youth

In the US, cigarette advertising has been prohibited on television since 1971, but advertising for e-cigarettes is unregulated. According to data cited in this study, youth exposure to e-cigarette ads increased by more than 250% from 2011 to 2013; past 30 day use of e-cigarettes by high school students increased from 1.5% to 13.4% in this same time period. Researchers used National Youth Tobacco Survey (N=22,007) data to examine the association between self-reported e-cigarette ad exposure and current use in middle school (n=10,419) and high school (n=11,399) students.

• Odds of past 30-day e-cigarette use were higher among students who reported frequent exposure to ads with adjusted odds ratios ranging from 1.54 to 2.91 depending on medium.
• Odds were greater for students that reported exposure “most of the time/always,” suggesting a possible dose effect.

Comments:

These findings suggest a link between viewing ads and using e-cigarettes. While this cross-sectional study cannot establish a causative effect, extensive previous investigations of traditional tobacco advertising raise alarms that unregulated e-cigarette ads may be targeting youth and influencing their behavior. These results suggest that efforts to reduce youth exposure to advertising are warranted.

Sharon Levy, MD, MPH

Reference:

Singh T, Agaku IT, Arrazola RA, et al. Exposure to advertisements and electronic cigarette use among US middle and high school students. Pediatrics. 2016;137(5).