Abstract Rationale Acute and long-term health effects from vaping are poorly understood despite increasing usage among younger adults. Additionally, vaping and cigarette smoking are often reported to be highly prevalent in military populations. Given increasing concern for deployment related respiratory disease (DRRD) among military personnel, the potential impacts of these personal inhalational exposures, in addition to other ambient airborne hazards, warrant review. The VA Post-Deployment Cardiopulmonary Evaluation Network (PDCEN) comprehensively evaluates symptomatic veterans in the Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry for DRRD. To better understand the potential burden of vape-related pulmonary effects, we evaluated the prevalence of vape and cigarette use in this population and assessed whether dyspnea and pulmonary function outcomes differed among users and non-users. Methods We analyzed data from PDCEN participants on smoking (100 lifetime cigarettes), vape use, and smoking/vape co-use, as well as demographics, pulmonary function tests (PFTs), and dyspnea via the Dyspnea-12 Survey (D12) - a validated questionnaire grading symptoms. We assessed differences in means or frequencies, using the Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test or Fisher’s exact test among four groups: veterans who never smoked, nor vaped (non-users); veterans who ever smoked, but never vaped; veterans who ever vaped, but never smoked; and veterans who ever vaped and ever smoked (dual users). Results Among 335 participants, we found prevalences of 9.6% who ever vaped, of whom 81.3% were dual users, and 38% who ever smoked. Table 1 shows demographic, D12, and PFT results across exposure groups. D12 scores for dyspnea among vape and cigarette users were lower relative to non-users. PFT data demonstrated statistically significant differences in FEV1/FVC ratio and TLC across the four groups. Notably, FEV1/FVC ratios were lower among users relative to non-users. Conclusions Analysis of data in a population of symptomatic veterans illustrates associations between vape and cigarette exposures with dyspnea and pulmonary function data. Both vape-only and dual users may demonstrate a tendency towards developing obstructive pathophysiology, provoking questions about the specific effects of vaping in lung disease. These results also showcase the need to account for vape and cigarette exposures when evaluating pulmonary disease in this veteran population though the small sample size of the vape-only group limits our current ability to make direct statistical comparisons. As PDCEN participants continue to accrue, analyses of these vape and cigarette user groups, while incorporating assessment of exposures to other military-relevant airborne hazards, may help clarify the impact of mixed exposures on DRRD. This abstract is funded by: Department of Veterans Affairs Airborne Hazards and Burn Pits Center of Excellence
Nahin et al. (Fri,) studied this question.