Skip to main content

Recently, multiple surveys have found that more teens now use electronic cigarettes than regular cigarettes. But a recent study by led by Jessica K. Pepper, PhD, a UNC Lineberger postdoctoral fellow, and UNC Lineberger member Noel Brewer, PhD, associate professor of health behavior at the UNC Chapel-Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health, has shown that doctors still focus counseling efforts on traditional tobacco products.

image2
Jessica K. Pepper, PhD and Noel Brewer, PhD

UNC Lineberger researchers authored a study recently that examined how pediatricians and other doctors interact with teenage patients regarding e-cigarettes.

The study, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, found that despite high rates of e-cigarettes use by teens, many fewer physicians reported routine screening of e-cigarette use compared with cigarette use. They also found that routine counseling to help teens avoid cigarette smoking was far more common than counseling for avoidance of e-cigarette use.