Electronic cigarette use is negatively associated with body mass index: An observational study of electronic medical records

Abstract

Objective: Vaping is advertised as a method to mitigate weight gain after smoking cessation; however, while there is an established inverse association between conventional tobacco use and body mass index (BMI), there is little research on the relationship between e-cigarettes and BMI. This research tested whether e-cigarette use was associated with BMI. Methods:A secondary data analysis of 207,117 electronic medical records from the UAB was conducted. Patient data from 1 September 2017 through 1 June 2018 were extracted. To be included in the analysis, a patient's record had to include measures of e-cigarette use and key sociodemographic information. Ordinary least squares regression was used to test the association between e-cigarette use and BMI, controlling for covariates; unconditional quantile regression was used to determine whether the association varied by BMI quantile. For comparison with tobacco smoking, the association between current tobacco smoking and BMI was estimated in a sample from the same population.Results: Respondents in the sample had an average BMI of 30.8 and average age of 50.0 years when BMI was measured. The sample was 51% female, 49.7% white, 46.7% black, and 1.0% Hispanic; 16.4% of the sample had less than a college education and approximately 5% reported currently using e-cigarettes. Individuals who reported using e-cigarettes had, on average, a lower BMI compared to those who did not report currently using e-cigarettes; results indicated that this association did not significantly vary by BMI quantile. Individuals who reported being current smokers had a lower BMI, on average. Conclusion:These findings suggest that using e-cigarettes is associated with a lower BMI in a population of individuals seeking health care, consistent with the association between conventional tobacco use and BMI. This study is a springboard for Mohammed M. Alqahtani presented a version of this paper in obesity week conference, held November 4-7, 2018, in Obesity Week 2018 in Nashville, TN. The abstract was selected for a presentation as one of the late-breaking abstract(s).This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Prevalence of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) Among Electronic Cigarette-Smoking University Students in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

“…Also, we found that E-cigarette is associated with high BMI in male individuals. Another study shows that E-cigarettes are associated with a lower BMI [25].…”

Non-traditional tobacco smoking: An emerging risk in the West Bank among male Palestinians

“…However, further longitudinal studies were recommended 37 . On the other hand, another study linked e-cigarette use to a lower BMI 38 . Considering the different types of tobacco smoking, the long duration of smoking, and Palestinians' heavy tobacco use, more studies are needed to determine the health effects of e-cigarette smoking.…”

Metabolic and Other Endocrine Elements with Regard to Lifestyle Choices: Focus on E-Cigarettes

“…Other findings, however, were against the association between obesity and e-cigarettes use. Hoover et al [19] did not find a statistically significant risk of obesity in e-cigarettes users despite a higher risk of food addiction (RR = 2.71, 99%CI: 1.75-4.21, p < 0.001) [19], while Alqahtani et al [20] found that e-cigarettes use was associated with a lower BMI (B = −3.07, p = 0.021) [20].…”

“…We found six studies investigating a possible link between e-cigarettes and BMI and/or obesity [13,15,[17][18][19][20], while three more studies provided data regarding the attainment of obesity prevention recommendations in e-cigarettes smokers [21], e-cigarettes use due to weight control purposes [22], and preferred e-cigarettes flavors in obese people [23]. The largest studied population was reported by Zhao et al [17] on two cross-sectional data sets, including a total of 373,781 subjects (2015-2016: 189,306 individuals and 2018-2019: 184,475 persons), among whom 0.93% were past 30-day e-cigarettes users (2015-2016: 0.91% and 2018-2019: 0.96%).…”

“…Table 1. Studies on metabolic issues and e-cigarettes according to our methods regarding: prediabetes [13,14], diabetes mellitus [15,16]; obesity [13,15,[17][18][19][20]; metabolic syndrome [15,24].…”