- A 2022 paper reporting higher odds and earlier onset of stroke among people who use vapes has been formally retracted.
- The journal said an investigation identified major data-analysis errors and that the authors could not adequately resolve them; the authors did not agree with the decision.
- Independent reviewers flagged impossible sample sizes, uncertainty about whether vaping occurred before stroke, and extremely small numbers of stroke cases among vapers.
- The decision wipes out a widely-cited claim that vaping increases stroke risk.
A peer-reviewed study that claimed to find a link between vape use and stroke has been pulled from the scientific record.
The paper, published in 2022 in MDPI’s Neurology International, analysed data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and concluded that adults who used vapes had higher odds of reporting a history of stroke than people who smoked combustible cigarettes. It also reported that stroke occurred at a younger median age among vape users.
On 18 December 2025, the journal issued a retraction. In its notice, the publisher said that concerns raised after publication led to an investigation by the editorial office and editorial board, which identified “several major errors in the data analysis.”
Although the authors initially cooperated, the journal said they were unable to provide satisfactory explanations or supporting material to resolve the issues. Attempts to obtain further information from the relevant institution were unsuccessful, and the editors said they had lost confidence in the reliability of the findings. The authors did not agree to the retraction.
The flaws identified
Critics who reviewed the paper and raised concerns with the journal pointed to several problems that, taken together, undermine the study’s conclusions.
Impossible sample sizes.
The article reported analysing 266,058 respondents from NHANES 2015–2018. According to official NHANES documentation, the total number of interviewees across those survey cycles is far smaller. Reviewers say this discrepancy indicates a fundamental error in how the data was loaded, merged, or weighted, meaning the basic counts underpinning the analysis were wrong.
No way to establish timing.
NHANES is a cross-sectional survey. It records whether respondents have ever had a stroke and whether they currently use, or have ever used, vapes – but not whether vaping began before or after a stroke occurred. Without that information, analysts cannot determine whether vape use preceded the event. Critics argue that the study nevertheless interpreted its results in a way that implied a directional relationship.
Too few stroke cases among vapers.
When the NHANES data is assembled correctly, reviewers report that the number of stroke cases among people classified as ‘exclusive vape users’ is extremely small. Statistical models built on very low event counts can behave unpredictably, sometimes producing exaggerated or misleading estimates. One warning sign highlighted by critics was the paper’s unusually narrow confidence interval around its main odds ratio.
Model instability and internal contradictions.
Reviewers also noted that, in the underlying data, stroke prevalence appeared lower among exclusive vape users than among exclusive cigarette smokers, but the study’s fully adjusted model reported the opposite. Large reversals like this can occur when models are unstable or when assumptions are violated.
How the findings were reported
Before the retraction, the study’s claims circulated beyond the journal through health-news coverage and conference-related reporting.
In late 2021, health news services reported that people who used vapes experienced stroke at younger ages and cited the same odds ratio and large sample size later criticised by reviewers. Specialist medical news sites also summarised the findings for clinical audiences. Those articles did not anticipate the data-handling issues that would later come to light.
Separately, other media stories over the past few years have reported on vaping and cardiovascular outcomes based on different studies, including meta-analyses and observational research. The retraction does not apply to those papers. It does, however, remove this particular analysis from the pool of evidence often referenced in discussions about vaping and stroke.
What the retraction means
A retraction is a formal statement that a published paper should no longer be relied upon. In this case, the journal concluded that the errors identified were serious enough to invalidate the findings.
The decision does not, by itself, resolve broader scientific questions about vaping and cardiovascular health. It does clarify that the specific claims made in this 2022 paper – about higher odds of stroke and earlier onset among vape users – are no longer supported by the journal that published them.
