About 28% of middle and high school students report the use of e-cigarettes per the 2019 NYTS survey. Social media can seclude a youth into limited set of beliefs, including affirmation for e-cigarette use. Internalizing problems like depression may be due to overuse of social media, and youth with depressive symptoms are more likely to use e-cigarettes to cope. National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) 2023 data was used (n = 18 143) in a cross-sectional design. Ever e-cigarette use was the binary (Y/N) dependent variable. Independent variable, social media use, was categorized as "never," "nondaily," "daily." Mediator variable, presence of recent depression was binary (Y/N). Survey weight adjusted logistic regression and path analysis were employed to identify direct and indirect effects (mediated via recent depression) of social media use on ever e-cigarette use. Social media use (nondaily, aOR = 1.58, P = .032; daily, aOR = 1.91, P P P = .037; daily, aOR = 1.88, P P P = .065; daily, aOR = 1.84, P P = .057; daily, aOR = 1.10, P < .001; both vs never). We observed that policy changes regarding monitoring of youth's social media use is needed to prevent youth from e-cigarette use.
Upadhyay et al. (Sun,) studied this question.