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Dual cigarette and e-cigarette use in cancer survivors: an analysis using Population Assessment of Tobacco Health (PATH) data

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Abstract

Purpose

Cancer survivors who smoke cigarettes face health risks from continued smoking. Some smokers use e-cigarettes to reduce combustible cigarette use, but research on whether cancer survivors do the same is limited. Research is needed to understand whether smokers who are cancer survivors use e-cigarettes at higher rates than smokers never diagnosed with cancer, to inform provider-patient discussions about e-cigarettes.

Methods

Using cross-sectional data from current cigarette smokers in Wave 1 (2013–2014) of the Population Assessment of Tobacco Health (PATH) study, we compared cancer survivors (n = 433) and those without a prior cancer diagnosis (n = 10,872) on e-cigarette use and reasons for use.

Results

Among smokers, 59.4% of cancer survivors and 63.2% of those without a cancer diagnosis had ever used e-cigarettes, and nearly one-quarter of both groups (23.1% and 22.3%, respectively) reported being current users. Multivariate results, however, suggest that cancer survivors might be more likely to be ever (OR = 1.28; p = .05) or current (OR = 1.25; p = .06) e-cigarette users compared to those never diagnosed, although results were marginally significant. The majority of both groups (> 71%) reported using e-cigarettes for perceived health-related reasons—including smoking reduction.

Conclusions

Our study found that among smokers, cancer survivors were using e-cigarettes at similar rates as never-diagnosed smokers and both groups used e-cigarettes largely for perceived health-related reasons.

Implications for cancer survivors

Clinicians who treat cancer survivors may need to routinely ask their patients who smoke about e-cigarette use and address the limited research on the efficacy of e-cigarettes as a cessation aid as compared to other evidence-based options.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Drs. Cathy Zimmer and Chris Wiesen of the UNC Odum Institute for their statistical assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA

    Yael R. Symes, Kurt M. Ribisl, Marcella H. Boynton & Shelley D. Golden

  2. Behavioral Research Center, American Cancer Society, Atlanta, USA

    J. Lee Westmaas

  3. School of Nursing, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA

    Deborah K. Mayer

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  1. Yael R. Symes
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Correspondence to Yael R. Symes.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

KM Ribisl serves as an expert consultant in litigation against tobacco companies. All procedures performed in the PATH study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the PATH study.

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Symes, Y.R., Ribisl, K.M., Boynton, M.H. et al. Dual cigarette and e-cigarette use in cancer survivors: an analysis using Population Assessment of Tobacco Health (PATH) data. J Cancer Surviv 13, 161–170 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-019-0735-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-019-0735-y

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