Infectious Disease
Young, female e-cigarette users more likely to have asthma attack, use health services
January 18, 2024
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Key takeaways:
- E-cigarette use raised the likelihood for an asthma attack, especially among young females.
- Females using e-cigarettes also had elevated hospitalization, ED visit rates vs. males.
Young females using e-cigarettes had greater odds for an asthma attack than young males not using e-cigarettes, according to results published in Annals of the American Thoracic Society.
Further, between these two sets of individuals, the females had higher rates of all-cause health services use, according to researchers.
Data were derived from To T, et al. Ann Am Thorac Soc. 2023;doi:10.1513/AnnalsATS.202207-578OC.
Teresa To
Using the Canadian Community Health Survey (2015-2016 and 2017-2018) and health administrative data (2015-2018), To and colleagues assessed 2,700 individuals aged 15 to 30 years to evaluate odds/rates of asthma, asthma attacks and health services use among those who used e-cigarettes vs. those who did not use e-cigarettes in the last 30 days.
Researchers matched e-cigarette users (n = 505; 65.35% male) to nonusers (n = 2,195; 62.64% male) using propensity scores and compared the two groups through multivariable logistic and negative binomial regression models adjusted for confounders.
“We found that 3% of survey participants aged 12 years and above reported e-cigarette use within the previous 30 days, which corresponds to 1 in 32 individuals using e-cigarettes during that time period,” To said. “Approximately half of e-cigarette users also reported smoking cigarettes daily.”
The prevalence of self-reported asthma was similar between both e-cigarette users (19.8%) and matched nonusers (17.54%), as was the prevalence of self-reported asthma attacks (6.93% vs. 5.92%).
Although researchers did not find a significant link between e-cigarette use and the odds for asthma, they did find that the likelihood for an asthma attack in the past year was heightened among female e-cigarette users vs. male nonusers (aOR = 2.3; 95% CI, 1.29-4.12). Females who did not use e-cigarettes also had elevated odds for this outcome vs. males (aOR = 2.29; 95% CI, 1.57-3.35).
When assessing confounder-adjusted rates of all-cause health services use (hospitalization, ED visit), researchers looked at both individuals who used e-cigarettes and individuals who smoked tobacco.
Compared with individuals who never used e-cigarettes or smoked tobacco, researchers found similar rates of health services use among exclusive e-cigarette users (RR = 1.73; 95% CI, 1-3) and exclusive tobacco users (RR = 1.72; 95% CI, 1.29-2.29).
Notably, use of both e-cigarettes and tobacco raised this rate (RR = 2.13; 95% CI, 1.53-2.98), according to researchers.
Dividing e-cigarette users and nonusers based on sex revealed elevated health services use rates among females who used e-cigarette vs. males who did not (RR = 1.94; 95% CI, 1.39-2.69). In this analysis, female nonusers had a lower rate (RR = 1.41; 95% CI, 1.16-1.71), followed by male e-cigarette users (RR = 1.13; 95% CI, 0.86-1.48).
Additionally, among those who did consume alcohol, researchers found a significant increased health services use rate in the group who used e-cigarettes vs. the group who did not (RR = 5.07; 95% CI, 2.4-10.71).
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Disclosures:
To reports receiving support for this study from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Please see the study for all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.
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