According to a study led by an Indian-origin researcher, teenagers and young adults using e-cigarettes are at increased risk of COVID-19. The study has been published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
The study is the first to examine connections between youth vaping and coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, using US population-based data collected during the pandemic. Among young people who were tested for the deadly COVID-19, the researchers found that those who vaped were five to seven times more likely to be infected than those who did not use e-cigarettes.
“Young people may believe their age protects them from contracting the virus or that they will not experience symptoms of COVID-19, but the data show this isn’t true among those who vape,” said the study’s lead author Shivani Mathur Gaiha, a postdoctoral scholar at the Stanford University School of Medicine in the US.
“This study tells us pretty clearly that youth who are using vapes or are dual-using (e-cigarettes and cigarettes) are at elevated risk, and it’s not just a small increase in risk; it’s a big one,” Gaiha said.
“Teens and young adults need to know that if you use e-cigarettes, you are likely at immediate risk of COVID-19 because you are damaging your lungs,” said the study’s senior author, Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, professor at the Stanford University.
Data were collected via online surveys conducted in May. Surveys were completed by 4,351 participants ages 13 to 24 who lived in all 50 US states, the District of Columbia and three US territories.
Among the participants who were tested for COVID-19, those who had ever used e-cigarettes were five times more likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19 than nonusers, according to the researchers. Those who had used both e-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes in the previous 30 days were 6.8 times more likely to be diagnosed with the disease, they said.
