Misinformation deterring young people from switching to vaping

Misinformation deterring young people from switching to vapingMany young adults ‘inaccurately believe that vaping is as bad for you or worse than smoking’ according to a study led by Brighton and Sussex Medical School. Young people were more likely to give up smoking and switch to vaping instead if they properly understood the reduced harm of vaping, says the report, which is published in the journal Nicotine and Alcohol Research.

Using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, the researchers found that a perception of vaping as less harmful among smokers aged 23-24 was associated with switching to vaping six years later. ‘To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study among young adults in England to assess whether vaping harm perceptions are longitudinally associated with vaping and smoking behaviours,’ says the report.

The findings highlight the need for interventions to tackle the ‘pervasive misperceptions’ about vaping, the researchers stress. Chief medical officer Chris Whitty has stated that  ‘The key points about vaping can be easily summarised. If you smoke, vaping is much safer; if you don’t smoke, don’t vape’.

While repeated studies have shown e-cigarettes to be an effective quitting tool for smokers, media reports on vaping frequently repeat ‘misconceptions as conventional wisdom’, and present ‘opinions as facts’, anti-smoking charity ASH warned in 2023. A study carried out by the charity last year found that almost 3m people in the UK had used vapes to successfully quit smoking in the last five years.

switching to vaping
‘Vaping is much less harmful than smoking and can help people successfully quit smoking’

‘There is a lot of misinformation circulating that vaping is as bad as smoking or even worse,’ said lead author of the Brighton and Sussex Medical School study, Dr Katherine East. ‘While vaping is not without risks, the evidence is clear that vaping is much less harmful than smoking and can help people successfully quit smoking. Unfortunately, misperceptions of vaping harms continue to increase, and we have found in our study that this could deter young adults who smoke from switching to vaping, a less harmful behaviour. In England in 2024, 85 per cent of adults who smoked inaccurately perceived that vaping is equally or more harmful than smoking or did not know the relative harms, an increase from 59 per cent ten years before.’

‘Smoking is uniquely deadly and will kill one in two regular sustained smokers, yet most people who smoke do not know vaping is less harmful and can help them to stop smoking completely,’ added co-author and Professor of Tobacco Addiction at King’s College London, Ann McNeill. ‘Our study shows the importance of addressing vaping misperceptions among people who smoke.’

Perceived harm of vaping relative to smoking and associations with subsequent smoking and vaping behaviors among young adults: evidence from a UK cohort study available here

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