SAFE Glen Cove Coalition: National Youth Tobacco Survey

E-cigarette use among youth remains a top concern for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This month, the FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released federal data from the 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey that indicates in 2022, about 1 in 10 or more than 2.5 million U.S. middle and high school students currently used e-cigarettes within the past 30-days. That translates to 14.1% (2.14 million) of high school students and 3.3% (380,000) of middle school students reported current e-cigarette use.

The 2022 data was collected between January and May of 2022, using an online survey among U.S. middle school (grades 6-8) and high school (grades 9-12) students. The use of an online survey allows all eligible students to participate in a classroom or at home during a designated class period as part of a class activity, however most students completed the survey in a classroom setting. Prior to 2021, the survey was solely conducted in a classroom setting. Due to changes in methodology, including differences in survey administration and data collection procedures in recent years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ability to compare estimates from 2022 with those from prior NYTS waves is limited.

Overwhelmingly, current users (nearly 85%) used flavored e-cigarettes, with fruit flavors being the most popular, followed by candy, desserts, or other sweets. More than a quarter (27.6%) of current youth e-cigarette users use an e-cigarette product everyday and more than 4 in 10 youth e-cigarette users report using e-cigarettes at least 20 of the last 30 days. The most commonly used device among current users was disposables (55.3%), followed by prefilled/refillable pods or cartridges (25.2%). Current users reported their usual brands as: Puff Bar (14.5%), Vuse (12.5%), Hyde (5.5%) and SMOK (4%).

Methodological changes made to conduct the NYTS during the COVID-19 pandemic prevent year-to-year comparisons of the 2021 data with data from previous surveys. In 2021, data were collected using an online survey to allow eligible students to participate in classrooms, at home, or in some other place to account for various instructional models during this time. Prior to 2021, the survey was conducted in person, inside the school classrooms.

In 2021, approximately, 2.55 million (9.3%) students reported current (past 30-day) use of a tobacco product: 2.06 million (13.4%) high school students and 470,000 (4.0%) middle school students. The 2021 NYTS asked students about their use of nine types of tobacco products. E-cigarettes were the most commonly currently used tobacco product, cited by 2.06 million (7.6%) middle and high school students, followed by cigarettes (410,000; 1.5%), cigars (380,000; 1.4%), smokeless tobacco (240,000; 0.9%), hookahs (220,000; 0.8%), and nicotine pouches (200,000; 0.8%). This was the first time that NYTS collected data on use of nicotine pouches.

Tobacco product use was higher among certain subpopulations. For example, current use of any tobacco product was reported by 14.2% of students identifying as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (versus 7.9% of heterosexual) and 18.9% of students identifying as transgender (versus 8.2% of not transgender).Also, current use of any tobacco product use was reported by 14.2% of students reporting severe psychological distress (versus 5.5% with no distress). Notably, almost two-thirds (65.3%) of students who currently used any tobacco product reported seriously thinking about quitting the use of all products, and 60.2% had stopped using all products for ≥1 days because they were trying to quit during the past 12 months.

FDA is committed to a science-based approach that addresses public health issues associated with tobacco use and collaborate with CDC on this nationally representative survey of middle and high school students that focuses exclusively on tobacco use behaviors and associated factors. NYTS was designed to provide national data on long-term, intermediate, and short-term indicators key to the design, implementation, and evaluation of comprehensive tobacco prevention and control programs.

The United States Food and Drug Administration is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. For more information please visit www.fda.gov.

SAFE is the only alcohol and substance abuse prevention, intervention, and education agency in the City of Glen Cove. Its Coalition is concerned about tobacco use and vaping seeking to educate and update the community regarding its negative consequences in collaboration with Carol Meschkow, Manager- Tobacco Action Coalition of Long Island. To learn more about the SAFE Glen Cove Coalition please follow us on ww.facebook.com/safeglencovecoalition or visit the Vaping Facts and Myths Page of SAFE’s website to learn more about how vaping is detrimental to your health www.safeglencove.org.