Emerging Disparities in E-Cigarette Use

Elizabeth Lawrence , University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Cassidy Lopez, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Korey Tillman, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

E-cigarette use among adolescents is a key issue for public health, but little is known about the social determinants of its use. We identify social patterns in e-cigarette use, focusing on differences across grades earned in school for both e-cigarette and cigarette use. We employ the 2017 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), which represents U.S. students in grades 9-12 and use logistic regression analysis. Our results indicate that there are important social differences in e-cigarette use among U.S. high school students. Strong differences across grades earned in school suggest the emergence of educational disparities for this new health behavior. For example, students reporting they receive “F’s” in school display odds of vaping more than six times greater than their peers receiving “A’s.” These differences appear slightly less strong compared to cigarette smoking, but provide evidence that educational disparities will be a key component of this emergent public health problem.

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 Presented in Session 5. Health & Mortality 1