Gendered associations between e-cigarette use, cigarette smoking, physical activity, and sedentary behavior among Canadian adolescents

Mini-Oral Presentation C3.18

Abstract

Background: A large increase in adolescent e-cigarette use and cigarette smoking has generated concerns about how these exposures may impact adolescent health behaviors. Purpose: To examine associations between e-cigarette use, cigarette smoking, physical activity, and sedentary behavior among a large sample of Canadian adolescents (grades 9–12). Methods: Data from 55,629 students who participated in COMPASS Year 6 (2017–2018) were used. Exposures included e-cigarette use and cigarette smoking. Outcomes included meeting recommendations for moderate-to vigorous-physical activity (MVPA; 60 min/d), muscular strengthening exercises (MSE; 3 time/wk), and recreational screen time (ST; 2hr/day) and participating in sports. Logistic regressions were performed. Results: Males showed higher prevalence of e-cigarette use (40.0% vs 31.3%) and cigarette smoking (4.4% vs 2.9%) than females. Both males and females who used e-cigarettes were more likely to meet MVPA and MSE recommendations, but less likely to meet the ST recommendation than those who did not use e-cigarettes. E-cigarette use was associated with more sport participation in males, however, results among females were mixed. Current cigarette use was associated with meeting the MVPA recommendation and less participation in intramurals in males; however, in females, current cigarette smoking was associated with less participation in any sports. Former cigarette use was associated with meeting the MSE recommendation in females. Conclusions: This study found that associations between e-cigarette use and cigarette smoking with movement behaviors and sport participation are largely gendered. Identifying differential co-occurrence of risk behaviors by gender is important for future health promotion efforts targeting physical activity among adolescents. Funding: The COMPASS study has been supported by a bridge grant from the CIHR Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes (INMD) through the “Obesity – Interventions to Prevent or Treat” priority funding awards (OOP-110788; awarded to SL), an operating grant from the CIHR Institute of Population and Public Health (IPPH) (MOP-114875; awarded to SL), a CIHR Project Grant (PJT-148562; awarded to SL) and by a research funding arrangement with Health Canada (#1617-HQ000012; awarded to SL). Dr. Leatherdale (APHC201405CPP-329323-116339) is a Chair in Applied Public Health Research funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada in partnership with CIHR. The funding bodies had no role in the design of the study, the collection, analysis, or interpretation of data, or the writing of the manuscript.