United States – Adolescents in Australia are more likely to vape if they’re going through depressive symptoms, doubling the risk.
The Need for Integrated Prevention and Intervention
“Nicotine might temporarily minimize anxiety and stress, and young people may be using vapes to self-medicate,” observed Emily Stockings, who also worked on the study, as reported by HealthDay.
“Regardless of whether mental ill health influences smoking or vice-versa, it is clear that if we are to prevent vaping onset, we need to address mental health at the same time,” said Stockings, who is an associate professor of medicine at the University of Sydney’s Matilda Center.
Vaping as a Coping Mechanism for Mental Health Challenges
The research followed the mental health and vaping trends of over 5000 Year 7 and 8 students, approximately aged between 12 and 13 years, from 40 schools in New South Wales, Queensland, and Western Australia.
About Nine percent said that they had used e-cigarettes.
Compared to children with low perceived stress, those reporting moderate stress levels were 74% more likely to vape and those reporting high stress levels were 64% more likely to vape as found by the study.
Current vaping was 105% more likely among those adolescents who self-estimated their well-being level as low than among those who said that their well-being level was high.
And again, there was no correlation between anxiety level and adolescent vaping, the authors observed.
Call for Further Research and Action
“More research is needed to understand the complex relationship between mental health and vaping, however, these study highlight the urgent need for prevention and early intervention approaches, backed by evidence, to support both the short- and long-term health and well-being of young people,” Dr. Lauren Gardner said in a University of Sydney news release. She co-leads the OurFutures Vaping Trial, which supplied the data used in the new study, as reported by HealthDay.
From the news release, the authors stated that a similar study was done in other countries, including the United States.
Previous studies conducted at the Matilda Center had estimated that the average teen vaping is 14 years old when he or she starts vaping.