A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Waterloo found that teens with a little extra cash in their pocket were the most likely to vape.
“Our study was looking to identify teens who were at the highest risk for vaping, as well as vaping and smoking,” Dr. Kate Battista, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Waterloo, told Global News.
“And our key finding was that youth with available spending money were at the highest risk for vaping, and in fact, spending money was the most important risk factor.”
Battista explained that the team from the School of Public Health Sciences examined several risk factors, such as age, gender and family wealth, but found that the largest risk of teens vaping appeared to be whether they had a $20 bill in their pocket.
“Any adolescents with over $20 in available spending money were at an elevated risk,” Battista said.
“So we did have some questions about where they get their available spending money and it was from a variety of sources.
“Some had spending money from a paycheque, from a part-time job or occasional work like babysitting, and some had it from an allowance.”
Battista said a previous study conducted by the university had found that the number of youths who were vaping in Ontario had jumped from 7.6 per cent in 2013-14 to 25.7 per cent in 2018-19 as tobacco use had declined from 11 per cent to 7.9 per cent.
“Our study was specifically looking at weekly rates of vaping and we found that 16 per cent of high school students in our study were vaping at least weekly,” she said.
While the study found that vape users were spread across a wide variety of demographics, the same could not be said for those who were both vaping and smoking.
“So one other key finding from the study was that when it came to smoking and vaping, what we call dual users, adolescents who were gender diverse or those from families with relatively lower affluence were at greater risk,” Battista explained.
The study used information collected from the Compass study, which surveyed 46,000 high school students across Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec.
While the Waterloo study offered plenty of information about youth and vaping, it did not look into where the youth were acquiring vape materials, as it is age-restricted across Canada.
Federal regulations require people to be over the age of 18 to purchase vaping products, although a number of provinces have pushed age restrictions to 19 or 21.
A 2021 survey from Health Canada found that a majority of teens who vaped were acquiring vaping products via family and friends.
The researchers are hoping that the data that was collected will spur policymakers to make informed decisions on prevention education.
“Our hope is that by identifying who is at risk, this can help decision-makers at the policy level but also at the school and community level make evidence-informed decisions for their prevention programming,” Battista said.
In a release, she noted that many teens develop lifelong behaviours as they go through their high school years.
“Adolescence is a pivotal period for the development of substance-use behaviours, and students who start using e-cigarettes and cigarettes now are at greater risk for issues like dependence and health consequences later in life,” Battista stated.