The research was published in the journal Pediatrics and covered by Reuters. Researchers from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles led the study, which involved two surveys.
The first survey, conducted in 2014, included responses from roughly 300 southern California high school students in 11th and 12th grade. By the time the follow-up study was conducted in 2015, all the students surveyed were at least 18 years old.
Analysis of the survey responses revealed approximately half of the students who were surveyed in 2014 had tried an e-cigarette. Of those, roughly 40 percent had tried a regular cigarette by the 2015 survey. By comparison, only 11 percent of the students who said they had not tried vaping in 2014 had tried a regular cigarette by 2015.
After adjusting the statistics for gender, ethnicity, grade and parental education, the researchers estimated teens who tried the e-cigarettes were six times more likely to take up smoking than those who never tried them.
Lead author of the study Jessica Barrington-Trimis, PhD, told Reuters the rate at which teens who claimed to have no interested in smoking, but then moved from e-cigarettes to regular cigarettes “suggests this is not just occurring among kids who intended to smoke anyway.”
More articles on e-cigarettes:
CDC releases results from youth risk survey: 5 key takeaways
NIH grants NYU $1.6 million to study biological and physiological effects of e-cigs
FDA announces new e-cigarette regulations: 6 things to know
