Vaping tied to asthma in teens

E-cigarette use, whether current or previous, is prevalent among adolescents with asthma, according to the results of a meta-analysis.

Researchers performed a systematic review and searched multiple online databases for studies that examined the association between e-cigarette use and asthma in participants aged ≤18 years. For inclusion, studies had to have used reasonable measures of asthma and an appropriate method to measure participants’ use of e-cigarettes.

The initial search identified 90 eligible articles, of which 10 were included in the meta-analysis. The total study population comprised 483,948 participants who were either middle- or high-school students. Five studies were conducted in the US, four in South Korea, and one in Canada.

The prevalence of ever e-cigarette use ranged from 2.2 percent to 45 percent (median, 11.2 percent) across the included studies, whereas the prevalence of current e-cigarette use varied between 2.7 percent and 25 percent (median, 7.5 percent).

Pooled data showed that compared with non-use, e-cigarette use was associated with significantly higher odds of having asthma (odds ratio [OR], 1.31, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.22–1.42). Similar associations were seen for both current use (OR, 1.36, 95 percent CI, 1.26–1.48) and ever use (OR, 1.20, 95 percent CI, 1.12–1.28).

The association between e-cigarette use and asthma was pronounced in the North American (OR, 1.28, 95 percent CI, 1.19–1.37) and Asian subgroups (OR, 1.54, 95 percent CI, 1.42–1.68), as well as among middle-school (OR, 1.32, 95 percent CI, 1.21–1.46) and high-school student participants (OR, 1.32, 95 percent CI, 1.14–1.53).

The findings can serve as a reference for public health policy and underscore the importance of developing primary prevention strategies.