Association between e-cigarette use and sleep deprivation in U.S. Young adults: Results from the 2017 and 2018 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.

Background: Few studies have assessed the association between e-cigarette use and sleep deprivation. This is an important question given the rapid increase in e-cigarette use among young adults in recent years.

Purpose: To determine whether e-cigarette use is associated with sleep deprivation in a sample of young (18-24 years-old) American adults.

Methods: We used pooled cross-sectional data from the 2017 and 2018 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), selecting respondents aged 18 to 24 from forty-one states and U.S. territories that included the e-cigarette and sleep modules in the interview (N = 19,701). Poisson regression models tested the relationship between e-cigarette use and sleep deprivation. We adjusted for sociodemographic variables, physical activity, mental health, BMI, smokeless tobacco products use, alcohol drinking, and smoking.

Results: In the pooled dataset, the weighted prevalence of current or former e-cigarette use was 47% and 35% of participants self-reported sleep deprivation. After adjusting for confounders, former e-cigarette users were 1.17 times more likely to report sleep deprivation, compared to never users (95%CI: 1.06, 1.29). The prevalence ratio for self-reported sleep deprivation increased to 1.42 (95%CI: 1.23, 1.65) for everyday users, compared to never e-cigarette users.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that e-cigarette use might be related to sleep deprivation in young adults. Future longitudinal studies should assess the causal and dose-response nature of this relationship.