Teenagers and young adults who use e-cigarettes are more likely to move on to traditional cigarettes than those who do not use the electronic devices, according to a small study sponsored by the National Cancer Institute.
The study, by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center, followed 694 people aged 16 to 26 who said they definitely had no intention of smoking cigarettes. Of those, 16 people, or 2.3 percent, were using e-cigarettes.
After one year, six of the e-cigarette users, or 37.5 percent, had begun smoking compared with 65, or 9.6 percent of those who were not using e-cigarettes at the start of the trial.
Another five e-cigarette users, or 31.3 percent, were no longer certain that they would not smoke cigarettes compared to 63, or 9.3 percent, of those who were not using e-cigarettes at the beginning.
A significant limitation of the study was the relatively small number of people who were using e-cigarettes at the beginning of the trial, making it difficult to be confident that the results would be replicated in a larger e-cigarette user sample.
The latest study did not address whether the six e-cigarette users who had transitioned to smoking were smoking on a routine basis, whether they were using both e-cigarettes and cigarettes, or simply experimenting.