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Likelihood of kids and young people smoking and vaping linked to social media use

3 mins read Children's dentistry Patient education
The more time spent on social media, the greater the likelihood that children and young people will both smoke and/or vape, suggests research published in Thorax.

The findings indicate that a weekday tally of seven or more hours was associated with more than a doubling in risk among 10 to 25-year-olds.

The existing body of research on social media use, smoking, and vaping mostly concerns the USA. So, to better assess the situation in the UK, the researchers drew on data from 10 to 25-year-olds participating in the ‘UK Household Longitudinal Study 2015–21’.

Participants were asked to report their normal weekday social media use as well as current cigarette smoking and vaping activity.

Among 10,808 participants, with a total of 27,962 reported observations, just over 8.5 per cent reported current cigarette smoking in at least one survey, and 2.5 per cent reported current vaping. Just over one per cent reported dual use.

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