The prevalence of vaping among youth decreased between 2020 and 2024, according to a study published today in JAMA Network Open. However, youth who do vape are doing so more frequently and finding it harder to quit.
“Youths who vape may be hardening toward daily, relapsing use patterns,” wrote Abbey R. Masonbrink, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of Southern California, and colleagues. This trend is concerning given that “the composition of current vapers or daily vapers over the 2020-2024 period became increasingly represented by youths from demographic groups that experience health disparities (females, non-Hispanic Black youths, and rural youths) and youths who used other substances.”
The researchers compiled data from the 2020 to 2024 Monitoring the Future (MTF) study, a nationally representative annual survey of eighth, 10th, and 12th graders in the United States (2020 was the first year daily vaping habits were assessed). The final sample included 115,191 MTF participants with complete data.
Between 2020 and 2024:
- The prevalence of survey respondents who vaped within the past 30 days dropped from 17.8% to 10.1%.
But among youth who did report vaping:
- The percentage who reported daily vaping increased from 15.4% to 28.8%, with notably high gains among rural youth.
- The percentage who reported an unsuccessful quit attempt increased from 28.2% to 53.0%.
Further, the researchers found that vaping decreased over time among non-Hispanic White and Latino youth but not non-Hispanic Black youth. Vaping prevalence also decreased more significantly among youth who did not use another substance like cannabis or alcohol.
“These findings may be partially driven by a potential positive trend of increasing motivation to quit … due to increasing perceived harms and social ostracization of vaping, which merits further study,” Masonbrink and colleagues wrote, while adding that youth “might also be gravitating toward using more addictive vaping products as the market shifts to products that are disposable, contain higher nicotine concentrations, have more puffs per unit, and contain nicotine salt formulations.”
For related information, see the Psychiatric News Special Report “Vaping—A Call to Action for Psychiatrists.”
(Image: Getty Images/iStock/Daisy-Daisy)
