Young adult smokers who wrongly believe vapes are more harmful than cigarettes are less likely to switch to vaping, a new study shows.
The research, published in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research, found the majority of young adults aged 23 or 24 inaccurately believed vaping is ‘as bad or worse’ for health than smoking.
Those who understood the reduced health risks of vapes were more likely to have switched from smoking to vaping after six years, the researchers found.
Misperceptions ‘continue to increase’
The study’s lead author Dr. Katherine East, Associate Professor in Public Health at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, said: “There is a lot of misinformation circulating that vaping is as bad as smoking or even worse. While vaping is not without risks, the evidence is clear that vaping is much less harmful than smoking and can help people successfully quit smoking.
“Unfortunately, misperceptions of vaping harms continue to increase, and we have found in our study that this could deter young adults who smoke from switching to vaping (a less harmful behaviour).
“In England in 2024, 85 per cent of adults who smoked inaccurately perceived that vaping is equally or more harmful than smoking or did not know the relative harms, an increase from 59 per cent ten years before.”
Dr. Jasmine Khouja, the study’s senior author, said the findings highlight the need for interventions to improve the pervasive misperceptions about vaping that are currently held among people who smoke.
“In recent years, we’ve seen a growing number of people believe that vaping is equally or more harmful than smoking,” she said. “Our study shows that these beliefs could be stopping some people from switching from smoking to vaping as a less harmful alternative.”
Vaping dramatically reduces risk of smoking-related disease
Khouja, a senior research associate at the Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group Integrative Cancer Epidemiology Program at the University of Bristol, added: “It is important for people who smoke to understand that although vapes are not risk-free, switching to vaping could dramatically reduce their risk of developing smoking-related diseases.”
The research is thought to be the first to study harmful misconceptions about vaping among young adults and how these are linked to smoking and vaping behaviours over the long term.
Professor Ann McNeill, the study’s co-author and Professor of Tobacco Addiction at King’s College London, said: “Smoking is uniquely deadly and will kill one in two regular sustained smokers, yet most people who smoke do not know vaping is less harmful and can help them to stop smoking completely. Our study shows the importance of addressing vaping misperceptions among people who smoke.”
The researchers analysed data from Bristol’s Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC).
They said their results are consistent with prior research among adults finding that accurate vaping harm perceptions can predict quitting smoking as well as starting vaping.
“Demonstrating this association among young adults is important because the earlier someone stops smoking the better their health outcomes, and this group have more inaccurate vaping perceptions than older adults,” the study said.
“Interventions to improve knowledge about vaping for tobacco harm reduction among young adults who smoke are needed, but none have been evaluated in the United Kingdom that specifically target this group.”
