The association between concussions and vaping among a nationally representative sample of U.S. adolescents

Abstract

Background

Concussions represent an important health threat that is crucial to study. Prior research has established a relationship between concussions and substance use. Specifically, studies find higher rates of drugs use, such as alcohol, marijuana, non-medical prescription pills, and illegal drugs among individuals who have suffered a concussion compared to those who have not. Unfortunately, research has yet to determine whether this link extends to a newer and increasingly popular form of adolescent drug use, vaping.

Methods

The current study investigates the association between concussions and various vaping activities (flavor vaping, nicotine vaping, marijuana vaping, variety score) on a nationally representative sample of U.S. 8th and 10th grade adolescents from the 2019 Monitoring the Future Survey.

Results

Results indicate that adolescents who were diagnosed with a concussion in their lifetime have higher odds of engaging in all types of vaping compared to adolescents who have never been diagnosed with a concussion.

Conclusions

The findings of this study support any policy or program aimed at increasing awareness about the connection between concussions and drug use and considering early interventions to potentially reduce substance use among adolescents who suffer concussions.

Keywords:

• Concussions
• vaping
• e-cigarette
• nicotine
• marijuana

Ethical approval

This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of The University of Texas at San Antonio (FY20-21-316).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 We opted to use a dichotomous indictor of having experienced a concussion as relatively few respondents (N = 595) reported being diagnosed with more than one concussion. Regardless, in order to test the robustness of our findings, we conducted a series of supplemental analyses to examine the relationship between the expanded measure of concussions and the likelihood of vaping. The results of these analyses yielded an identical pattern of findings to the findings using the dichotomous measure. The Tables and Figures documenting these supplemental analyses are located in Appendix A.