E-cigarette use by Ontario public elementary school and secondary school students: Has the use among sociodemographic groups changed from 2017 to 2019?

This project examined e-cigarette use among Elementary School (ES) (grades 7 and 8) and Secondary School (SS) (grades 9-12) students in Ontario, Canada, for 2017 and 2019 and relationships with sociodemographic variables and traditional cigarette use. The data came from the Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey OSDUHS (2017, 2019). Socio-demographics included grade, school performance, sex, race, years in Canada, living arrangements and language spoken at home. E-cigarette use and cigarette smoking were any past year use. For 2017, there are a greater percentage of ES males than females who used e-cigarettes, older students, those living in more than one home and those smoking cigarettes. For SS students a greater percentage for those of older age, higher grades, living in Canada all their lives, using only English language at home, self-identified as white, with lower school performance, those with multiple household living arrangements and who reported smoking traditional cigarettes reported using e-cigarettes. Use was lower among females in 2017 (OR = 0.63, 95% CI = 0.46, 0.86, p = 0.002), but by 2019 use was higher among females, which resulted in a non-significant difference between males and females (OR = 0.91, 95% CI = 0.77, 1.09). Greater use of e-cigarettes was found among students who smoked traditional cigarettes compared to those who did not smoke in both years. Monitoring the trends, patterns and trajectories of use and variables related to use needs to be continued which may help inform the development of further legislative and educational measures.