Does use of other tobacco products change when cigarette smoking status changes: A descriptive study of young adults

Whether polytobacco use or nicotine dependence (ND) change when cigarette smoking status changes in young adults is an understudied issue. Our objective was to describe use of other tobacco products (OTPs) and ND according to change in cigarette smoking status over four years in young adults.

We drew data from a longitudinal study of 1294 adolescents age 12-13 at inception in 1999-2000 and followed into young adulthood. Among 790 participants with data at age 20 and 24, 22% had never smoked cigarettes; 37% were "sustained smokers"; 9% were "relapsers"; 10% had quit 1-3 years ago; and 22% had quit ≥4 years ago. We described past-year OTP (i.e., cigars/cigarillos, waterpipe, sundry tobacco products (i.e., pipe, bidis, chewing tobacco, snuff)) use and ND over 4 years in these groups.

At age 20, sustained smokers reported using a mean(SD) of 1.1(0.9) OTP in the past-year; relapsers reported 0.5(0.6); shorter-term quitters reported 0.9(0.7); longer-term quitters reported 0.3(0.6); and never smokers reported 0.2(0.4). There was no change in OTP use or ND in never smokers and longer-term quitters. Shorter-term quitters reduced the number of OTPs by -0.5(95% confidence interval: -0.7,-0.3) on average over 4 years; sustained smokers decreased by -0.2(-0.3,-0.1). Relapsers increased by 0.6(0.4,0.7) on average.

OTP use and ND were stable in early adulthood among never smokers, sustained smokers and longer-term quitters, but fluctuated in parallel with stopping and starting to smoke. Research is needed to ascertain the underpinnings of these fluctuations and whether they help or hinder cessation.