Declines in cigarette smoking among US adolescents and young adults: indications of independence from e-cigarette vaping surge

Objective To compare trends in cigarette smoking and nicotine vaping among US population aged 17–18 years and 18–24 years. Methods Regression analyses identified trends in ever and current use of cigarettes and e-cigarettes, using three US representative surveys from 1992 to 2022. Results From 1997 to 2020, cigarette smoking prevalence among those aged 18–24 years decreased from 29. 1% (95% CI 27. 4% to 30. 7%) to 5. 4% (95% CI 3. 9% to 6. 9%). The decline was highly correlated with a decline in past 30-day smoking among those aged 17–18 years (1997: 36. 8% (95% CI 35. 6% to 37. 9%; 2022: 3. 0% (95% CI 1. 8% to 4. 1%). From 2017 to 2019, both ever-vaping and past 30-day nicotine vaping (11. 0% to 25. 5%) surged among those 17–18 years, however there was no increase among those aged 18–24 years. Regression models demonstrated that the surge in vaping was independent of the decline in cigarette smoking. In the 24 most populous US states, exclusive vaping did increase among those aged 18–24 years, from 1. 7% to 4. 0% to equivalent to 40% of the decline in cigarette smoking between 2014–15 and 2018–19. Across these US states, the correlation between the changes in vaping and smoking prevalence was low (r=0. 11). In the two US states with >US1/fluid mL tax on e-cigarettes in 2017, cigarette smoking declined faster than the US average. Conclusions Since 1997, a large decline in cigarette smoking occurred in the US population under age 24 years, that was independent of the 2017–19 adolescent surge in past 30-day e-cigarette vaping. Further research is needed to assess whether the 2014–15 to 2018–19 increase in exclusive vaping in those aged 18–24 years is a cohort effect from earlier dependence on e-cigarette vaping as adolescents.