E-cigarette use is the single strongest risk factor for adolescents taking up tobacco smoking, outranking social norms, poor mental health and misperceptions about smoking harms, research published on Wednesday has found.
The findings come from 4,266 Victorian students aged 12 to 17 who anonymously took part in the 2017 Australian Secondary School Students Alcohol and Drug Survey (Assad), with researchers then focusing on 3,410 students who reported never having smoked even part of a cigarette.
