E-cigarette, combustible, and smokeless tobacco product use combinations among youth in the United States, 2014-2019

ABSTRACT Introduction Youth e-cigarette use has been rising, however U.S. prevalence data are generally reported without disaggregating by individuals’ use of other tobacco products. It is not clear how the proportion of youth e-cigarette users naïve to all combustible tobacco is changing. Methods Annual prevalence estimates of ever and current (defined as past 30-day use) tobacco use prevalence by school type are reported using the 2014-2019 National Youth Tobacco Surveys (NYTS) with mutually exclusive categories of e-cigarette, smokeless tobacco, and/or combustible tobacco product use. T-tests were used to compare annual estimates with the preceding year. The annual percent change (APC) for each category from 2014-2018 were analyzed using JoinPoint regression. Data for 2019 were reported separately due to the change in survey format from paper to electronic. Results Current use of only e-cigarettes among HS students who never used combustible tobacco increased significantly from 2014-2018 (APC = +42.4%, 95% CI: 0.7, 101.3); by 2019, prevalence peaked at 9.2% (95% CI: 8.2, 10.2) among never combustible users and 8.3% (95% CI: 7.3, 9.3) among former combustible users. This coincided with significant declines in use of only combustible tobacco (APC=-14.5%, 95% CI: −18.3, −10.5). Conclusions Use of only e-cigarettes among US youth with no history of combustible tobacco use has increased substantially over time, even as combustible tobacco use continues to plummet. Of the 17.5% (95% CI: 15.7, 19.0) of HS students who currently used only e-cigarettes (but not other tobacco) in 2019, more than half have no history of combustible tobacco use.