Vaping Linked to Increased Asthma Risk

Vaping is linked to an increased risk of developing asthma, even among individuals who have never smoked conventional cigarettes, according to the results of a recent study.

Despite the popularity of vaping, evidence on long-term pulmonary effects is limited. In order to explore the association between vaping and asthma risk in individuals who had never used combustible cigarettes, the researchers examined data on 402,822 individuals without a history of combustible cigarette use from the 2016 and 2017 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a cross-sectional telephone survey of adults in the US.

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Of the total participants, 3103 were current e-cigarette users and 34,074 had asthma. Overall, current use of e-cigarettes was associated with 39% higher odds of self-reported asthma compared with never users. Odds of having asthma increased with the intensity of e-cigarette use, from 1.31 in occasional users to 1.73 in daily users, compared with never users.

“Our findings from a large, nationally representative survey suggest increased odds of asthma among never combustible smoking e-cigarette users. This may have potential public health implications, providing a strong rationale to support future longitudinal studies of pulmonary health in young e-cigarette-using adults,” they concluded.

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Osei AD, Mirbolouk M, Orimoloye OA, et al. The association between e-cigarette use and asthma among never combustible cigarette smokers: behavioral risk factor surveillance system (BRFSS) 2016 & 2017. BMC Pulm Med. 2019;19(180). doi:10.1186/s12890-019-0950-3.