Since 2019, overall rates of nicotine vaping have declined among U.S. youth, but those who continue to vape are showing signs of worsening addiction, according to new USC research. Between 2020 and 2024, the share of current users who vaped every day increased from 15.4% to 28.8%. Over the same period, the share of daily users who tried to quit but were unable to rose from 28.2% to 53%. The study, funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, was just published in JAMA Network Open.
Public health advocates raised the alarm when youth vaping rates surged between 2014 and 2019. Data collected during the COVID-19 pandemic suggested that those who continued to vape were becoming heavy users, with a growing number reporting vaping within five minutes of waking up and on an increasing number of days per month.
