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. 2021 Jan 12;23(7):1199–1207. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntab009

Table 3.

Tobacco and Nicotine Use Among “Never Smokers” (N = 17 179) Within the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study

aAny tobacco/nicotine bAny combustible tobacco Cigarettes e-Cigarettes Cigars Hookah Pipes Smokeless Snus
Ever tried
Raw n 11 233 10 500 7996 5324 6151 5378 1464 1844 837
Weighted % 66.7 62.4 46.3 31.1 36.1 31.7 8.7 10.7 5.0
(95% CI) (65.7, 67.8) (61.3 to 63.5) (45.1 to 47.5) (30.0 to 32.1) (34.8 to 37.4) (30.7 to 32.8) (8.0 to 9.5) (10.0 to 11.5) (4.4 to 5.6)
Used in past 30 days
Raw n 3861 2921 1545 1296 1578 648 153 601 207
Weighted % 22.0 16.6 8.5 7.4 8.9 3.8 0.9 3.3 1.2
(95% CI) (20.1 to 23.1) (15.6 to 17.6) (7.7 to 9.3) (6.8 to 8.1) (8.3 to 9.7) (3.5 to 4.3) (0.6 to 1.2) (2.9 to 3.8) (1.0 to 1.4)
c Current experimental use (ie, every day use or some day use but never regular use)
Raw n 1067 923 971 312 463 225 58 62 53
Weighted % 5.7 4.9 5.3 1.9 2.4 1.3 0.4 0.4 0.3
(95% CI) (5.2 to 6.3) (4.4 to 5.4) (4.7 to 5.9) (1.6 to 2.3) (2.1 to 2.9) (1.0 to 1.6) (0.2 to 0.6) (0.3 to 0.6) (0.2 to 0.5)
Ever established regular use
Raw n 3053 1997 e 940 1211 883 265 747 235
Weighted % 22.8 15.0 e 5.3 7.1 5.3 1.6 4.4 1.6
(95% CI) (21.7 to 23.9) (14.1 to 15.9) (4.8 to 5.8) (6.6 to 7.8) (4.9 to 5.8) (1.3 to 1.9) (3.9 to 4.9) (1.33 to 2.0)
d Former established regular use
Raw n 1467 1140 e 518 590 607 194 268 127
Weighted % 11.0 8.5 e 3.0 3.4 3.7 1.2 1.6 0.9
(95% CI) (10.2 to 11.9) (7.8 to 9.2) (2.6 to 3.4) (3.0 to 3.8) (3.3 to 4.1) (1.0 to 1.5) (1.3 to 2.0) (0.7 to 1.3)
Current established regular use
Raw n 1478 737 e 391 499 252 60 471 100
Weighted % 8.6 4.5 e 2.1 3.1 1.6 0.3 2.7 0.6
(95% CI) (7.9 to 9.4) (4.0 to 5.1) (1.8 to 2.5) (2.7 to 3.5) (1.3 to 1.9) (0.2 to 0.5) (2.3 to 3.1) (0.4 to 0.8)
Current established every day use
Raw n 586 104 e 146 89 15 13 336 49
Weighted % 3.3 0.6 e 0.8 0.5 f f 1.9 0.3
(95% CI) (2.9 to 3.8) (0.5 to 0.8) (0.7 to 1.0) (0.4 to 0.7) (1.6 to 2.2) (0.2 to 0.4)

Regular use = endorsed smoking/using “fairly regularly.” Categories are not mutually exclusive (see Figure 1 and Supplementary Figure 1). See Supplementary Table 2 for tobacco use among adults who reported ≥100 cigarettes in their lifetime (ie, “ever” cigarette smokers). The terms used in this table represent PATH Study-derived variables and are defined in Table 1.

aAny tobacco/nicotine includes use of cigarette and non-cigarette tobacco products and e-cigarettes for the Ever tried, Used in past 30 days, and Current experimental use categories but only includes use of non-cigarette tobacco products and e-cigarettes for the Ever established regular use, Former established regular use, Current established regular use, and Current established every day use categories.

bAny combustible tobacco includes use of cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and hookah for the Ever tried, Used in past 30 days, and Current experimental use categories but only includes use of cigars, pipes, and hookah for the Ever established regular use, Former established regular use, Current established regular use, and Current established every day use categories.

c Current experimental use refers to every day or some day use the past 30 days and excludes tobacco or nicotine users who were Ever established regular users. In the Any tobacco/nicotine and Any combustible tobacco categories, respondents who were an Ever established regular user of one tobacco product and a Current experimental user of another product were included as Established regular users and excluded from the Current experimental Any tobacco/nicotine and Any combustible tobacco use categories. Thus, there are fewer current Experimental Any combustible tobacco smokers than Cigarette smokers because some Cigarette smokers were also Established regular users of another combustible tobacco product and so were classified as Ever established regular users within the Any combustible tobacco column.

dNote that Former established regular use in the Any tobacco/nicotine category excludes respondents who are former regular users of one product and current users of a different tobacco product. Respondents who are former regular users of one product and current users of a different tobacco product are categorized as Current established regular users of any tobacco/nicotine.

eExcluded because this analysis is limited to never established regular cigarette smokers (<100 lifetime cigarettes).

fOmitted due to small sample size. Estimates were considered statistically unreliable and thus findings were omitted when the denominator was less than 50 or the relative standard error (RSE) was greater than 30%.27

“Never smoker” = Reported smoking <100 cigarettes in lifetime.