Menthol cigarettes strengthen smoking habits

Smoking menthol cigarettes increases the frequency of the habit and encourages further use, a recent study has shown.

Drawing data from the 2017 and 2018 National Youth Tobacco Surveys, the researchers identified 1,707 youth (53.2 percent male) who reported past 30-day cigarette use. More than half (50.7 percent; n=728) used menthol-flavoured cigarettes and 82 percent used other tobacco products in the 30 days prior to the survey.

Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that users of menthol cigarettes were significantly more likely to smoke for at least 10 days than their nonmenthol counterparts (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 1.48, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.14–1.94).

This remained true even when stratifying according to grade level (middle school: adjusted OR, 2.36, 95 percent CI, 1.01–5.49; high school: adjusted OR, 1.41, 95 percent CI, 1.09–1.82).

Moreover, smokers of menthol cigarettes were significantly more likely to indicate that they would continue to use cigarettes in the following year, as opposed to youth who smoked nonmenthol cigarettes (adjusted OR, 1.54, 95 percent CI, 1.08–2.19). This trend persisted in the middle school (adjusted OR, 2.03, 95 percent CI, 0.76–5.38) and high school (adjusted OR, 1.45, 95 percent CI, 0.98–2.14) subgroups.

Menthol cigarette users were also less likely to have intentions of quitting the habit in the next 30 days, though statistical significance was not achieved (adjusted OR, 0.87, 95 percent CI, 0.64–1.19).