Young People’s Use of E-Cigarettes across the United Kingdom: Findings from Five Surveys 2015–2017

Bauld, Linda; MacKintosh, Anne Marie; Eastwood, Brian; Ford, Allison; Moore, Graham; Dockrell, Martin; Arnott, Deborah; Cheeseman, Hazel; McNeill, Ann

doi:10.3390/ijerph14090973

Open AccessArticle

Young People’s Use of E-Cigarettes across the United Kingdom: Findings from Five Surveys 2015–2017

by

Linda Bauld

^1,2,*,

Anne Marie MacKintosh

^1,2,

Brian Eastwood

³,

Allison Ford

^1,2,

Graham Moore

⁴

,

Martin Dockrell

³,

Deborah Arnott

⁵,

Hazel Cheeseman

⁵ and

Ann McNeill

^2,6

¹

Institute for Social Marketing, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, UK

²

UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies

³

Alcohol, Drugs and Tobacco Division, Health Improvement Directorate, Public Health England, Skipton House, 80 London Road, London SE1 6LH, UK

⁴

Centre for the Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions for Public Health Improvement (DECIPHer), School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, 1-3 Museum Place, Cardiff CF10 3BD, UK

⁵

Action on Smoking and Health (ASH); 67-68 Hatton Garden, London EC1N 8JY, UK

⁶

Addictions Department, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, 4 Windsor Walk, London SE5 8BB, UK

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2017, 14(9), 973; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14090973

Submission received: 2 August 2017 / Revised: 18 August 2017 / Accepted: 23 August 2017 / Published: 29 August 2017

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electronic Cigarette Use and Public Health)

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Abstract

Concern has been expressed about the use of e-cigarettes among young people. Our study reported e-cigarette and tobacco cigarette ever and regular use among 11–16 year olds across the UK. Data came from five large scale surveys with different designs and sampling strategies conducted between 2015 and 2017: The Youth Tobacco Policy Survey; the Schools Health Research Network Wales survey; two Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) Smokefree Great Britain-Youth Surveys; and the Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey. Cumulatively these surveys collected data from over 60,000 young people. For 2015/16 data for 11–16 year olds: ever smoking ranged from 11% to 20%; regular (at least weekly) smoking between 1% and 4%; ever use of e-cigarettes 7% to 18%; regular (at least weekly) use 1% to 3%; among never smokers, ever e-cigarette use ranged from 4% to 10% with regular use between 0.1% and 0.5%; among regular smokers, ever e-cigarette use ranged from 67% to 92% and regular use 7% to 38%. ASH surveys showed a rise in the prevalence of ever use of e-cigarettes from 7% (2016) to 11% (2017) but prevalence of regular use did not change remaining at 1%. In summary, surveys across the UK show a consistent pattern: most e-cigarette experimentation does not turn into regular use, and levels of regular use in young people who have never smoked remain very low.

Keywords: smoking; tobacco; e-cigarettes; youth; prevalence; surveys

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MDPI and ACS Style

Bauld, L.; MacKintosh, A.M.; Eastwood, B.; Ford, A.; Moore, G.; Dockrell, M.; Arnott, D.; Cheeseman, H.; McNeill, A. Young People’s Use of E-Cigarettes across the United Kingdom: Findings from Five Surveys 2015–2017. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2017, 14, 973. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14090973

AMA Style

Bauld L, MacKintosh AM, Eastwood B, Ford A, Moore G, Dockrell M, Arnott D, Cheeseman H, McNeill A. Young People’s Use of E-Cigarettes across the United Kingdom: Findings from Five Surveys 2015–2017. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2017; 14(9):973. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14090973

Chicago/Turabian Style

Bauld, Linda, Anne Marie MacKintosh, Brian Eastwood, Allison Ford, Graham Moore, Martin Dockrell, Deborah Arnott, Hazel Cheeseman, and Ann McNeill. 2017. "Young People’s Use of E-Cigarettes across the United Kingdom: Findings from Five Surveys 2015–2017" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 14, no. 9: 973. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14090973

APA Style

Bauld, L., MacKintosh, A. M., Eastwood, B., Ford, A., Moore, G., Dockrell, M., Arnott, D., Cheeseman, H., & McNeill, A. (2017). Young People’s Use of E-Cigarettes across the United Kingdom: Findings from Five Surveys 2015–2017. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 14(9), 973. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14090973

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Young People’s Use of E-Cigarettes across the United Kingdom: Findings from Five Surveys 2015–2017

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