(Press-News.org)
Since 2019, overall rates of nicotine vaping have declined among U.S. youth, but those who continue to vape are showing signs of worsening addiction, according to new USC research. Between 2020 and 2024, the share of current users who vaped every day increased from 15.4% to 28.8%. Over the same period, the share of daily users who tried to quit but were unable to rose from 28.2% to 53%. The study, funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, was just published in JAMA Network Open.
Public health advocates raised the alarm when youth vaping rates surged between 2014 and 2019. Data collected during the COVID-19 pandemic suggested that those who continued to vape were becoming heavy users, with a growing number reporting vaping within five minutes of waking up and on an increasing number of days per month.
To follow up on those trends, a team of researchers from the USC Institute for Addiction Science and the Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science analyzed data from surveys completed by 115,191 teens in the 8th, 10th and 12th grade across the United States. They aimed to find out whether young vapers are “hardening,” a term borrowed from tobacco research that describes when, as overall use declines, the remaining users become more addicted and have a harder time quitting.
“What we found is highly concerning for clinicians, public health advocates and policymakers. The rise in daily vaping and growing number of youth trying to quit implies that these youth are experiencing a severe level of nicotine addiction. This means we need to improve treatment and prevention efforts for this population,” said the study’s first author, Abbey Masonbrink, MD, MPH, clinical associate professor of pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and research director of the Division of Hospital Medicine at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA).
The findings can help policymakers and regulators determine how best to protect young people. For example, new generations of vapes can deliver higher concentrations and volumes of nicotine than earlier versions. Limits on nicotine content could potentially help reduce the risk of severe addiction among U.S. youth.
“The nicotine industry is constantly evolving—changing the size, concentration and size of products—and youth may not be aware of the high quantities of nicotine they’re consuming,” said Masonbrink, who is also a member of the USC Institute for Addiction Science. “We’re concerned that these products pose a high risk of addiction for youth who continue to vape.”
Growth in daily use
The researchers analyzed the past five years of data from Monitoring the Future, an annual in-school survey that asks 8th, 10th and 12th graders across the country about their substance use.
Among youth who reported vaping at least once in the past 30 days, the percentage who vaped daily increased from 15.4% in 2020 to 28.8% in 2024. Of those reporting daily use, the percentage who tried unsuccessfully to quit rose from 28.2% to 53%.
Over the study period, the demographics of youth vapers also changed. By 2024, more vapers were female, non-Hispanic Black or from a rural area. More youth vapers also reported using other substances, including alcohol and cannabis.
Helping youth quit
Among youth in rural communities, daily vaping jumped dramatically—from 16.4% in 2020 to 41.8% in 2024, a spike that has prompted the study team to examine further. Masonbrink is now planning a follow-up study with youth in urban, suburban and rural areas to explore their experiences with nicotine product marketing and product access, as well as prevention and public health messaging.
National surveys have shown that while many young people want to quit vaping, most attempt to do so without formal support or treatment.
“Youth who only vape occasionally may be able to stop on their own, but those who are vaping daily will have a much harder time quitting without treatment and support,” said Masonbrink, who leads research to improve care for adolescents with severe nicotine dependence at CHLA.
New research shows that medications for nicotine addiction, such as varenicline, are effective in helping young people quit. Educating youth about these treatments and expanding access for those with severe nicotine addiction should be a top priority going forward, Masonbrink said.
About this research
In addition to Masonbrink, the study’s other authors are Dayoung Bae, Junhan Cho, Alyssa F. Harlow, Steve Sussman, Louisiana M. Sanchez, Abigail Adjei, Leah R. Meza, Ming Li and Adam M. Leventhal from the Keck School of Medicine of USC and the Institute for Addiction Science, University of Southern California; Richard A. Miech from the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Hongying D. Dai from the College of Public Health, University of Nebraska; and Dae-Hee Han from Emory University.
This work was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health [K23DA055736, K99DA058241 and K24048160]; and the National Cancer Institute and U.S. Food and Drug Administration [U54180905].
END
A glacier on Antarctica’s Eastern Peninsula experienced the fastest retreat recorded in modern history—in just two months, nearly 50 percent of the glacier disintegrated.
A new CU Boulder-led study, published today in Nature Geoscience, details how and why Antarctica’s Hektoria Glacier retreated at an unprecedented rate in 2023, losing a total of eight kilometers of ice in two months. The main driver was the glacier's underlying flat bedrock that enabled the glacier to go afloat after it substantially thinned, causing a rare calving process.
The new findings may help researchers identify other glaciers to monitor for rapid ...
The same cellular renewal that keeps our bodies healthy might also fuel the growth of cancer. A UC Merced biologist has found that the brain could hold the key to stopping it.
Professor Néstor Oviedo, a molecular and cell biologist and affiliate of the Health Sciences Research Institute, received more than $2 million from the National Institutes of Health to investigate signals mediating the earliest stages of cancer development. His findings could one day change how doctors think about treating cancer and age-related diseases.
“Our initial data suggest that key cancer symptoms can be selectively removed by activating signals from the nervous system,” ...
Computer-generated holography (CGH), as one of the most attractive next-generation three-dimensional (3D) display technology, possesses the capacity to provide authentic depth cues of 3D scenes via faithfully recording the optical field with computational simulations and loading the calculated holograms to reconstruct the target scenes. However, the process of hologram generation is predominately an ill-posed inverse problem, since only the intensity or amplitude information of the target scene is known while the original wavefront phase remains inaccessible ...
The last experimentally fundamental passive circuit element is the memristor that was originated in 2008 by Dmitri Strukov and presents a thin-film dielectric material with oxygen vacancies placed between two electrodes. This element changes its resistance based on the amount and direction of current that has flowed through it and its resistance has non-linear behavior from the current flow. Memristors are used in neuromorphic computing, data storage systems, and various devices for information processing and consume less power than basic silicon transistors. These elements are an attractive subject for modern scientific community due to their advantages ...
Missing Context in Single-Cell Data
Single-cell RNA sequencing has transformed biology by showing which genes are active in individual cells. However, this approach requires cells to be removed from their natural environment, erasing information about their position and neighbors. Spatial transcriptomics preserves this context but is technically more limited and harder to scale. Researchers have long lacked a way to study cell identity and tissue organization together.
AI Model Reveals Hidden Tissue Structures
Nicheformer overcomes this barrier by learning from both dissociated and spatial data. It can “transfer” spatial context back onto cells that were previously ...
From medical microrobots to flexible sensors, the next generation of technology depends on devices that are smaller, smarter, and more capable than ever before. But building these intricate structure, often just micrometers across, requires extraordinary precision, not only in shaping materials but in programming their properties.
In the International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing, a team of Chinese researchers reviews the fast-growing field of Field-assisted Additive Manufacturing (FAM)—a method that combines 3D printing with external fields such as magnetic, acoustic, or electric stimuli to precisely guide materials as they form.
"Traditional ...
Chemists at the National University of Singapore (NUS) have found a new use for deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), not just as genetic material, but as a tool for more efficient production of medicinal compounds. Certain parts of DNA, called phosphates, can act like tiny “hands” that guide chemical reactions to selectively produce the desired mirror-image version of a compound.
Many medicinal compounds are chiral, meaning they come in two mirror-image forms, like right and left hands, that can behave very differently in the body. This is an important aspect because many drugs only work in ...
Renewable energy of the future is concentrated solar power because it can be easily used to store thermal energy. Despite the fact that, historically, it is more expensive and complex than photovoltaic power, in recent years huge advances have taken place in this technology, and concentrated solar power plants are spreading across more and more countries as a source for a sustainable future.
As Iñigo González de Arrieta, a researcher in the Thermophysical Properties of Materials group of the University of the Basque ...
In recognition of her innovative experimental approaches and breakthrough discoveries on the genetic mechanisms of neurodevelopmental disorders, Dr. Xin Jin has been named the 2026 Peter Gruss Young Investigator.
“The field of nominees was incredibly impressive; however, Dr. Jin stood out among the nominees for her creative and multidisciplinary integration of methodologies to make tremendous progress toward understanding principles of brain development and function. She is well on her way to becoming a leader in the neuroscience field,” ...
Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancers, often diagnosed late and resistant to treatment
Scientists discovered a new sugar-based cloak that helps tumor cells evade the immune system
An experimental antibody blocked that disguise, reawakening immune cells and slowing tumor growth in mice
Northwestern team is now refining the antibody for human studies
CHICAGO --- Pancreatic cancer is notoriously hard to treat and often resists the most advanced immunotherapies. Northwestern Medicine scientists have uncovered a novel explanation for that resistance: Pancreatic ...
