Commentary on “Increased nicotine vaping due to the COVID-19 pandemic among US young adults: Associations with nicotine dependence, vaping frequency, and reasons for use”

Abstract

This manuscript is a correspondence referencing an article published in Preventive Medicine.

In the June issue of Preventive Medicine, Parks et al. (2022) discussed vaping trends among young adults in the United States during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Young adults worldwide are susceptible to nicotine use, as this population is targeted through media advertising and the availability of a wide variety of appealing electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) product flavors (CDC, 2022). Nicotine use during these early stages of life may result in negative health outcomes such as poor brain development and an increased risk of continued substance use in the future. Having a deeper understanding of vaping behaviors among young adults is imperative to inform evidence-based strategies to prevent initiation of using e-cigarettes. Also, young people who use e-cigarettes are at a greater risk of using cigarettes in the future (CDC, 2022). In our quest to inform the literature, we are seeking a few points of clarification from the authors.

First, we are interested in knowing how data collection was conducted and request more information on the procedures used by the authors, as there was limited information in the article. Second, we question the emphasis placed on the study finding of increased vaping among a small cohort of young adults, as this conflicts with other investigators who found a decline in vaping among young adults during the COVID-19 pandemic (Culbreth et al., 2022; Denlinger-Apte et al., 2022; Sun et al., 2021). Denlinger-Apte et al. (2022) found a 2.4% decrease in the prevalence of vaping, which was attributed to the pandemic. Sun et al. (2021) found a decrease in nicotine product days from 1.4 days per month in 2019 to 0.8 days per month in 2022. Declines in social vaping may be attributed to the reduction of social events during the pandemic (Culbreth et al., 2022). Finally, we are concerned that the language used in the article title (i.e., “due to”) may be misleading to readers, as the study did not test cause and effect. To test cause and effect, a randomized controlled trial is needed, in which randomization reduces bias and provides a rigorous tool used to examine cause and effect relationships between interventions and outcomes (Hariton and Locascio, 2018).

In conclusion, we thank the authors for their contribution to the vaping literature and for moving the science forward in this area. We are eager to hear from the authors in order to continue this discourse to promote the understanding of vaping among young adults.

Declaration of Competing Interest

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

Data availability

No data was used for the research described in the article.