Original article
The Associations Between E-Cigarettes and Binge Drinking, Marijuana Use, and Energy Drinks Mixed With Alcohol

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2016.10.011Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

Use of e-cigarettes by youth is proliferating worldwide, but little is known about the behavioral profile of youth e-cigarette users and the association of e-cigarette use with other health-risky behaviors. This study examines the associations between e-cigarette use and tobacco, marijuana, and alcohol use among a large sample of Canadian youth.

Methods

Using Canadian data from 39,837 grade 9 to 12 students who participated in year 3 (2014–2015) of the COMPASS study, logistic regression models were used to examine how current use of e-cigarettes were associated with tobacco, marijuana, binge drinking, and energy drinks mixed with alcohol. Pearson's chi-square tests were used to examine subgroup differences by sex.

Results

Overall, 9.75% of respondents were current e-cigarette users. Current cigarette smokers (odds ratio [OR] = 3.009), current marijuana users (OR = 5.549), and noncurrent marijuana users (OR = 3.653) were more likely to report using e-cigarettes than noncigarette smokers and nonmarijuana users. Gender differences among males and females showed higher risk of e-cigarette use among female current marijuana users (OR = 7.029) relative to males (OR = 4.931) and female current smokers (OR = 3.284) compared to males (OR = 2.862). Compared to nonbinge drinkers, weekly (OR = 3.253), monthly (OR = 3.113), and occasional (OR = 2.333) binge drinkers were more likely to use e-cigarettes. Similarly, students who consume energy drinks mixed with alcohol (OR = 1.650) were more likely to use e-cigarettes compared to students who do not consume them.

Conclusions

We identify that youth who binge drink or use marijuana have a greater increased risk for using e-cigarettes compared to cigarette smokers. These data suggest that efforts to prevent e-cigarette use should not only be discussed in the domain of tobacco control.

Section snippets

Design

This study uses data from the COMPASS study which is an established school-based system designed to effectively guide and improve youth prevention research and practice. The COMPASS study is an ongoing cohort study (2012–2021) collecting hierarchical and linked longitudinal behavioral and program/policy data from a sample of 50,000+ grade 9 to 12 students and the 89 secondary schools they attended in Ontario (n = 79) and Alberta (n = 10) [32]. While the first wave of data for COMPASS was

Descriptive statistics

Table 1 describes the sample (full and stratified by sex). As shown in Table 1, 9.75% of respondents reported using e-cigarettes in the past 30 days (12.40% of males and 7.09% of females). Among all respondents in our final sample, 6.01% were current smokers, 15.87% were classified as current marijuana users, 16.20% were occasional binge drinkers, 16.81% were monthly binge drinkers, 5.91% were weekly binge drinkers, and 13.69% reported consuming energy drinks mixed with alcohol. When we

Discussion

This study identified that almost 1 in 10 Canadian youth from Ontario and Alberta in grades 9 to 12 in the COMPASS study were considered current e-cigarette users in the 2014–2015 school year, representing a 35% relative increase in current e-cigarette use compared to the results identified just 1 year earlier with the year 2 COMPASS data [6]. Our results identify that co-occurring substance use behaviors are common among youth who are current e-cigarette users and that co-occurring substance

Funding Sources

The COMPASS study was supported by a bridge grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes (INMD) through the “Obesity—Interventions to Prevent or Treat” priority funding awards (OOP-110788; grant awarded to ST. Leatherdale) and an operating grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Institute of Population and Public Health (IPPH) (MOP-114875; grant awarded to ST. Leatherdale). Dr. Leatherdale is a Chair in Applied

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      Citation Excerpt :

      Existing evidence shows an association between e-cigarette use and subsequent marijuana use among youth (Dai et al., 2018). Indeed, existing evidence demonstrates that both e-cigarettes and marijuana use are prevalent among youth in the US (Dai and Hao, 2017; Trivers et al., 2018) and beyond (Milicic and Leatherdale, 2017). A 2016 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) study found that among e-cigarette users, around 30 % of high school students (estimated 1.7 million) and nearly 25 % of middle school students (estimated 425,000) had ever vaped marijuana (Trivers et al., 2018).

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    Conflicts of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

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