Prevalence of Vaping and Behavioral Associations of Vaping Among a Community of College Students in the United States.

We investigated the prevalence of vaping among college students in South-central Appalachia in the United States and explored factors which were associated with and could predict vaping among the college students. A sample of 498 enrolled students voluntarily completed a self-report REDCap health survey questionnaire in 2018. Outcome variable was use of electronic cigarettes categorized as yes/no. Independent variables included risky behaviors such as texting or emailing while driving, riding in a car with someone who had been drinking, history of protected and unprotected sexual intercourse, age at first intercourse, and type of contraceptive used. Covariates were age, gender, ethnicity/race and high school location. The first category was used as reference. Binary logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with and predicting vaping. Mean age of participants was 20.93(± 8.26), 62.9% were female, a majority (76.5%) were non-Hispanic White, and 43.2% reported vaping at some point in their lives. Initial univariate analysis showed gender (p < 0.0001), seat belt usage (p = 0.002), texting or emailing while driving (p = 0.002), riding in a car with someone who had been drinking (p = 0.001), history of sexual intercourse (p < 0.001), coitarche (p = 0.026), use of birth control pills and withdrawal method were associated with vaping. Adjusting for co-variates, gender (p < 0.002), county of high school (p < 0.009) and texting and e-mailing while driving (0.05), seat belt usage (0.04) remained significant. Vaping was highly prevalent (43.2%) among our participants. Gender, location of high school, texting/emailing while driving and seat belt usage are predictors of vaping among these students.

Predicting bone turnover following tobacco exposure using bone alkaline phosphatase and N-telopeptide biomarkers and possible variability and effect modification of these markers by race/ethnicity.

Introduction: This study investigated the systemic response of serum bone alkaline phosphatase (SBAP) and urinary N-telopeptide (UNTX) to tobacco exposure and environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) and the possible effect modification (and variability) of this response by racial/ethnic origin.Methods: Data (n = 5411) were obtained from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, with data analysis done on adults aged ≥ 20 years. Outcome variables were SBAP and UNTX. Independent variable was tobacco exposure measured using serum cotinine levels and adjusted for covariates. Generalized linear models were used to explore associations.Results: A percentage increase in log transformed serum cotinine was associated with a 0.005 percentage increase in log transformed SBAP (CI: 0.002, 0.008) and 0.02 percentage increase in log transformed UNTX (CI: -0.01, 0.04) with interaction between cotinine and race/ethnicity (p = 0.01). Stratifying by race/ethnicity, tobacco exposure was associated with significant decreases in UNTX among non-Hispanic Whites - 0.008(-0.014, -0.002) and Mexican Americans -0.014 (-0.025, -0.002) only. Categories of serum cotinine were associated with a monotonic increase in SBAP (p for trend <0.001) and monotonic non-linear decrease in UNTX (p for trend > 0.05).Conclusions: Tobacco and environmental tobacco exposure are associated with SBAP and increased bone formation. The response of UNTX to these exposures is modified by race/ethnicity with non-Hispanic Whites and Mexican-Americans less sensitive to the resorptive effects of tobacco exposure on bone.