The Genetic and Environmental Influences Contributing to the Association between Electronic and Conventional Cigarette Initiation
Menée aux Etats-Unis auprès de 421 paires de jumeaux âgés de 15 à 20 ans, cette étude analyse les influences génétiques et environnementales dans les comportements tabagiques (cigarette électronique et cigarette classique)
As the use of electronic cigarettes (EC) continues to rise in the United States, especially among adolescents and young adults, it is necessary to better understand factors associated with EC initiation. Specifically, it is unclear how genetic and environmental contributions influence the initiation of EC. Further, the degree to which genetic and environmental influences are shared between EC initiation and conventional cigarette (CC) initiation is unknown.A sample of young adult twins ages 15-20 (N = 858 individuals; 421 complete twin pairs) was used to estimate the genetic and environmental influences on the liability of initiation unique to EC and CC as well as the degree to which these factors are shared between the two. Approximately 24% of participants initiated use of EC, 19% initiated use of CC, and 11% initiated dual use.Combined contributions of additive genetic and shared environmental influences were significant for CC (ACC = 0.19 [95% CI = 0-0.79], p = 0.57; CCC = 0.42 [95% CI = 0-0.70], p = 0.13) and EC (AEC = 0.25 [95% CI = 0-0.83, p = 0.44; CEC = 0.42 [95% CI = 0-0.73], p = 0.12), while unique environmental influences were significant (ECC = 0.39 [95% CI = 0.18-0.57], p < 0.001; EEC = 0.32 [95% CI = 0.14-0.56], p < 0.001). Results also demonstrated a significant overlap of the unique environmental (rE = 0.87, p < 0.001) and familial influences contributing to correlation between the two phenotypes in the bivariate analysis.These preliminary results suggest that both genes and environmental influences are potential drivers of electronic cigarette initiation among adolescents and young adults.This article is the first to use a sample of twin to estimate the contributions of genetic and environmental influences toward EC initiation and estimate the potential for overlapping influences with CC initiation. This study has implications for future debate about the etiology of EC and CC use with respect to potential overlapping genetic and environmental influences.