Canadian Teens With Extra Cash in Pocket Most Likely to Pick up Vaping: Study

A researcher holds vape pens in a laboratory in Portland, Ore., on April 16, 2019. Craig Mitchelldyer/AP Photo

Teens with extra money to spend are more likely to buy e-cigarettes, according to a recent study from the University of Waterloo.

Researchers looked at survey responses from 46,000 teens in 167 schools across the country and found that e-cigarettes appear to be “attracting new groups of adolescents who aren’t considered high-risk for traditional cigarette use,” said Dr. Kate Battista, a postdoctoral scholar in the School of Public Health Sciences at Waterloo.

The study looked at how often teens use e-cigarettes, cigarettes, and both smoking methods, factoring in age, sex, racial and ethnic background, family income, disposable income, and even whether they have their own bedroom.

“We expected to find certain specific high-risk groups, but we instead found that nearly all demographic groups who had enough spending money were at risk of vaping,” Battista said.

Adolescents indicated they used money from an allowance, from part-time jobs, or occasional jobs like babysitting, said Battista.

“This tells us that the spending-money risk factor is more about the adolescent’s spending power, or having their own pocket money to purchase vapes than it is about their socioeconomic position or family income.”

Battista said it’s important for policymakers, public-health officials, and schools to understand the risk and the findings will help them develop intervention initiatives targeting those in need.

“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 said.

Study authors used data from the COMPASS survey of Canadian high school students and their health behaviours.

Although spending money is the highest risk factor, family income and gender diversity also show up as relevant factors, and gender-diverse students have the highest risk of dual vaping and smoking.

Other Canadian studies have also looked into the number of teens who report smoking or vaping. Twelve percent of Canadians aged 15 and older reported smoking cigarettes in 2022, according to the Canadian Community Health Survey. The survey also found that 14 percent of men and 10 percent of women aged 15 and older smoke cigarettes. Of those, 11 percent of males and 8 percent of females said it was a daily habit.

Data from the Canadian Tobacco and Nicotine Survey (CTNS) in 2021 showed that vaping rates had been steady since 2019. In the survey, 13 percent of those aged 15 to 19 years said they had vaped in the last 30 days. Sixty-one percent of those who said they’d vaped in the past month had never smoked tobacco cigarettes, according to the Government of Canada.

When asked why they were vaping, 33 percent said it reduced stress, up from 21 percent in 2019. Other reasons included because the teens enjoyed it (28 percent), and because they wanted to try it out (24 percent).

About half of the teens participating in the CTNS reported getting vaping devices (55 percent) and liquids (50 percent) from friends or family rather than purchasing them.