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.
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.