Research has increasingly been focused on the health effects of vaping, usually touted as a way to quit combustible smoking, and evidence is accumulating for their risks.
Research by Boston University School of Public Health and School of Medicine has revealed that, far from being harmless, vaping may in fact raise the risk for a number of respiratory diseases by 21% for former e-cigarette users and 43% for current users.
Corresponding author Dr Andrew Stokes, assistant professor of global health at Boston University said, “This provides some of the very first longitudinal evidence on the harms associated with e-cigarette products.
“In recent years we have seen dramatic increase in e-cigarette use among youth and young adults which threatens to reverse decades of hard-fought gains,” Stokes said. “This new evidence also suggests that we may see an increase in respiratory disease as youth and young adults age into midlife, including asthma, COPD, and other respiratory conditions.”
Previous research has largely focused on in vitro studies, or short-term studies with human participants. The study used data from 21 618 participants from the nationally representative Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) survey. To isolate the effect of e-cigarettes, the researchers adjusted for any form of combustible smoking use, including second-hand smoking.
“With a longitudinal study design and extensive sensitivity analyses, the study adds to a growing body of evidence indicating long-term health risks of e-cigarette use to the respiratory system,” said study lead author Wubin Xie, a postdoctoral associate at Boston University.
Source: Medical Xpress
