Alternative Tobacco Use and Cigarette Smoking Transitions among College Students in Texas

Abstract

Background: High prevalence of very light cigarette smoking and use of alternative tobacco products (ATPs; i.e. electronic nicotine delivery systems [ENDS], cigars, and hookah) among young adult college students are causes for concern. The purpose of this study is to examine transitions in cigarette smoking (never vs. non-current vs. very light vs. heavier) among college students across 2.5 years and determine if the use of ATPs is related to these transitions. Methods: This study used six waves of data across 2.5 years from Project M-PACT. Participants who were 18–25 years of age at baseline were included in this study (n = 4,806). Cigarette smoking state was categorized as never smoking, non-current smoking [0 cigarettes smoked per day (cpd) in past month], very light smoking (< =5 cpd in past month), and heavier smoking (>5 in past month). Multi-state Markov models were used to examine temporal transitions in the four smoking states and examine the association of time-varying current ATP use with transitions in smoking states. Results: The probabilities of remaining in a smoking state decreased over time. The time-varying current ATP use was significantly related to increased odds of transitioning from never smoking to non-current smoking, from never smoking to very light smoking, and from non-current to very light smoking. Conclusions: Findings highlight the need to prevent ATP use among college students and in turn inhibit initiation and escalation of cigarette smoking.

Keywords:

• Longitudinal analysis
• Markov model
• young adults
• cigarette smoking
• alternative tobacco

Ethnics Approval

All study procedures were approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at the University of Texas at Austin (2013-06-0034).

Disclosure Statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. The content of this manuscript is solely the responsibility of the author(s) and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NCI, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), or the FDA.

Consent to Participate

Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the original studies contributing to this meta-analysis.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [1 P50 CA180906 and 1 R01 CA249883], from the National Cancer Institute(NCI) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products (CTP).