A study by doctoral student Adriana Eugene and Distinguished Professor Luisa N. Borrell found that older adults who use electronic cigarettes had greater odds of reporting respiratory illness such as asthma, chronic bronchitis, and COPD. The findings are published in the journal Preventive Medicine.

The researchers used data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health study to quantify the association between e-cigarette use and asthma, chronic bronchitis, COPD, emphysema, or other lung or respiratory conditions. They used age, gender, and other tobacco products use as modifiers of this relationship.

After adjustment, Eugene and Borrell found that among U.S. adults, those who reported ever having used e-cigarettes had 1.32 greater odds of respiratory illness than those who reported never using them.

When comparing those who had and hadn’t used e-cigarettes, they found that older adults and users of other tobacco products to have greater odds of reporting respiratory illness than younger adults and those who never used other tobacco products.

The joint effect of age and e-cigarette use on respiratory illness was statistically significant, suggesting that this effect was greater than expected on the additive and multiplicative scales.

“This suggests that the relationship between e-cigarette use and respiratory illness varies with age,” says Eugene. “Any interventions or policies to reduce e-cigarette use should focus especially on the high-risk groups for respiratory illness.”