Researchers examined the association of non-cigarette tobacco use on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) risk in the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study. Previous studies that examined the use of e-cigarette products and COPD outcomes showed mixed results.
There were nearly 14,000 participants who were at least 40 years of age with Wave 1 data for prevalence analyses, including nearly 7,000 adults without COPD for incidence analyses. The Wave 1 mean age was 58.1 years, and the mean cigarette pack-years was comparable for all of the categories that involved cigarettes and exclusive use of e-cigarettes, which was higher than those who just used cigars. Never tobacco, former tobacco, and cigar users were associated with a lower COPD prevalence vs those who had past 30-day cigarette use. All of the categories, minus cigar and smokeless tobacco use, were linked to greater prevalence of COPD compared with never tobacco use. Those who had never and formerly used tobacco were at a lower risk for COPD compared with those who were currently cigarette smokers.
Reference: Paulin LM, Halenar MJ, Edwards KC, et al. Association of tobacco product use with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) prevalence and incidence in Waves 1 through 5 (2013-2019) of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study. Respir Res. 2022;23(1):273. doi: 10.1186/s12931-022-02197-1.
