A new study establishes that vaping was associated, like conventional cigarettes, with a higher prevalence of osteoporosis and fractures, even in young adults.
- This is the first study to investigate the association between e-cigarettes and fragility fractures.
- The results clearly show a prevalence between vaping and the risk of osteoporotic fractures. This risk does not spare 18-25 year olds, who are the main users of electronic cigarettes in the United States.
Marketed as a healthier alternative and a weaning aid from conventional cigarettes, e-cigarettes have known, since their arrival on the market ten years ago, a certain appeal, particularly among young adults. Thanks to their often minimalist design and the range of flavors they offer, e-cigarettes are tempting more and more smokers or novices. According to the European Commission’s Eurobarometer dating from 2017, France has 3 million vapers.
But vaping is not without health risks. While conventional smoking is an established risk factor for bone fragility and fracture, the association between e-cigarette use and bone health has not been studied before.
It is now done, with this study from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, in the United States, and published in theAmerican Journal of MedicineOpen. According to its authors, the use of e-cigarettes was associated with a higher prevalence of fragility fractures and osteoporosis, even in young adults.
A link between vaping and bone fragility
To study the association between vaping and fragility fractures, researchers used a sample of more than 5,500 American adult men and women from National Health and Nutrition Survey (NHANES) data from 2017-2018. . A total of 4519 (81.2%) people had never used an e-cigarette, 1050 (18.8%) had ever used one and 444 (8.0%) reported fragility fractures.
The results showed a higher prevalence of fragility fractures in e-cigarette users than in non-users. The researchers also found that people who used both conventional cigarettes and e-cigarettes had a higher prevalence of fragility fractures than conventional smokers alone.
Young smokers can also be affected
As the prevalence of e-cigarette use is highest in the 18-25 age group in the United States, these results suggest that younger users may also increase their risk of osteoporotic fractures over time. weather.
“To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the relationship between e-cigarette use and fragility fractures.says Dr. Dayawa D. Agoons, first author of the work. It fills an important knowledge gap given the growing popularity of e-cigarette use and the significant economic burden and known morbidity and mortality associated with osteoporotic fractures.”
The researcher is now pleading for recognition of e-cigarettes as a potential risk factor for fragility fractures, in the same way as conventional cigarettes.
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