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Teen girls are now vaping more than boys nationwide, reversing a trend that lasted for years, according to researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). The study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, analyzed data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study (PATH) and found that among older teens, almost eight percent of girls were regular vapers, compared with fewer than five percent of boys. The study covered a decade from 2014 to 2024, focusing on adolescents ages 12 to 17.
Benjamin Toll, director of the MUSC Health Tobacco Treatment Program, emphasized the need for public health efforts to address this issue. "We need both prevention and intervention for these young people who are vaping at alarmingly high rates," he said, as reported by News-Medical.Net.
The study revealed that vaping rates surged in 2018 and 2019, coinciding with the popularity of e-cigarettes like JUUL. This surge led to the disappearance of the longstanding gender gap in vaping. However, since 2021, girls have been vaping at higher rates than boys, particularly among older teens ages 15 to 17. Regular vaping among girls in this age group climbed from 4.9% in 2021 to 7.8% in 2024, approaching the peak seen during the 2018-2019 youth vaping surge, according to Hometown Register.
Brandon Sanford, the study's lead author, noted that the research focused on "current established" smoking and vaping, meaning participants used the products regularly within the past 30 days. He described the findings as a conservative estimate of use, highlighting that these adolescents are regular e-cigarette users.
Despite the rise in vaping, traditional cigarette smoking among adolescents has fallen dramatically. Fewer than 0.5% of both boys and girls were established smokers by the final wave of data. Toll described this decline as a "massive public health win."
The study's findings underscore the need for targeted prevention efforts and public health policies to address youth vaping. Sanford emphasized the importance of understanding the factors driving these trends to develop effective prevention and treatment strategies.