E-cigarette use among young people has fallen for the first time
in Wales but declines in youth smoking have stalled, analysis
from Cardiff University shows.
The report is based on responses from 119,388 11-16 year-olds who
took part in the School Health Research Network’s (SHRN) 2019
Student Health and Wellbeing survey, one of the largest youth
health surveys of its kind in the UK. It shows 22% reported
having ever tried an e-cigarette, down from 25% in 2017. Current
e-cigarette use (weekly or more) by young people also declined
from 3.3% to 2.5% over this period.
Experimentation with vaping (22%) - defined as having ever tried
an e-cigarette - is still more popular than trying tobacco (11%),
according to the data. But the long-term decline in those
regularly smoking has stalled, with 4% of those surveyed smoking
at least weekly in 2019, the same level as in 2013.
Dr Nicholas Page, based at the Centre for Development,
Evaluation, Complexity and Implementation in Public Health
Improvement (DECIPHer), said: “Monitoring young people’s
behaviours and attitudes towards smoking and e-cigarette use is
essential to developing effective public health policy in Wales.
The findings from our latest survey suggest that experimentation
with e-cigarettes has fallen for the first time since measurement
began in 2013, but remains greater than experimentation with
tobacco. Our data also suggest that regular use of e-cigarettes
is still rare among young people in Wales and is concentrated
predominantly among smokers.
“While our findings show a small decline in youth smoking
experimentation from 2017, the percentage of regular smokers has
remained unchanged since 2013. As we’ve seen in previous years,
the numbers of young people using tobacco increased with age and
were higher among young people from less affluent families -
showing the substantial inequalities in smoking uptake.”
The report also suggests youth perceptions of the harmfulness of
smoking and e-cigarette use have changed since 2017. A higher
percentage now think that both substances are equally as damaging
to health, while less now believe smoking to be worse than
vaping.
Of the shift in attitudes, Dr Page said: “It is important to
place this change in the context of when our data were collected.
The survey was undertaken at a time when the US outbreak of
vaping-associated lung injury (EVALI) was receiving global media
attention. While we don't know whether this had an impact, EVALI
has been associated with a similar change in harm perceptions
among adult smokers in England. It remains to be seen whether
this continues to be the case in future surveys.”
Despite large population declines in smoking prevalence in recent
decades, tobacco remains a leading cause of death and disability.
Since their emergence in UK markets over the past decade,
e-cigarettes have been increasingly recognised as having a role
to play in helping smokers to quit. However, much debate has
centred on their use by young people and whether vaping may act
as a gateway into smoking. Regulations for e-cigarettes, such as
age of sales restrictions and restrictions on marketing and
product labelling have been introduced in the past few years.
The Student Health and Wellbeing survey is a biennial survey
administered to a core sample of 11-16 year olds attending
participating schools in Wales. In 2019, students from 198
schools took part.
SHRN was established in 2013 and is led by DECIPHer at Cardiff
University. Welsh Government, Public Health Wales, Cancer
Research UK and the Wales Institute of Social and Economic
Research Data and Methods (WISERD) are also partners.
