Researchers discovered that socioeconomic status doesn’t explain the link between smoking marijuana, poorer academic performance and difficulties with mental health.

Researchers from Arizona State University conducted a study to determine if the link between smoking marijuana and poor performance in school was affected by the social class of the student.

The data showed that cannabis users in both lower and upper economic classes did worse in school, proving that it isn’t the social environment that determines academic success.

The Study

The study tracked the academic progress of 254 youths in an upper middle class community for four years of high school.
Image: Ready for Zero

The study was conducted by Arizona State University’s Department of Psychology and published in the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Researchers initiated the study in order explore the idea that low socioeconomic status explains the link between smoking marijuana and poorer academic performance and mental health.

“A key question, therefore, is whether adolescent cannabis use is associated with poorer academic performance and mental health in high SES communities where there is reduced potential for confounding,” according to the study’s abstract.

The study included 254 youths from an upper middle class community aged 14 to 15 and 17 to 18. The researchers tracked the student’s progress for four years of high school.

The researchers measured the amount of cannabis used each year and compared it to the official school records of academic performance, in addition to self-reported mental health symptoms.

Frequent marijuana use was linked to low grade-point average for four years that the students attended high school.

In addition, smoking marijuana often in 12th grade was also associated with lower Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) score and greater mental health symptoms that were directed outward.

Broadening The Scope

When students combined maijuana, tobacco and alcohol,  it was hard to tell which substance was causing problems in school and with mental health.
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Researchers found that students who regularly used alcohol and tobacco had the same effect. However, once alcohol and tobacco use was added to the mix, it was hard to discern what substance was causing the effect.

Marijuana use isn’t significant if the student is also drinking alcohol and smoking tobacco.

The findings show that a student’s economic status in a lower class didn’t explain the link between cannabis use, poorer academic performance and difficulties with mental health. Marijuana use seems to negatively impact students of all social classes, not just those who are suffering from poverty.

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A new study confirms that youths who use electronic cigarettes are more likely to switch to traditional tobacco cigarettes.

Vaping is a relatively new fad, and researchers all over the world are trying to figure out how it will impact the population.

Because so many scientists are gathering data on vaping, the studies often conflict. Some support e-cigarettes as smoking cessation therapies, while others reject them as gateway products.

As the FDA grapples with how to regulate e-cigarettes, a new study sponsored by the National Cancer Institute shows that teens who vape are more likely to move on to traditional tobacco cigarettes.

The Study

Researchers surveyed approximately 700 e-cigarette users and non-users and tracked the amount who begun using traditional cigarettes one year later.
Image: West Texas News

The study will be published in the November edition of the journal JAMA Pediatrics. It’s one of many that attempts to discern the benefits from the negative effects of e-cigarettes.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center conducted a study that tracked 694 people between the ages of 16 to 26. The majority of participants were considered to be “non-susceptible” and had no intention of smoking cigarettes. Only 16 people, or 2.3 percent of participants, were already using e-cigarettes at the start of the study in 2012.

One year later, 37.5 percent of e-cigarette users had transitioned to cigarettes, compared to only 10 percent of youths who were not already using e-cigarettes.

About 31 percent of e-cigarette users changed their mind about intending to smoke cigarettes, compared to 9.3 percent who were not using e-cigarettes at the beginning.

The authors took additional factors that could have influenced e-cigarette users into account. The study did not focus on the frequency of e-cigarette use, intention to experiment or if e-cigarettes and cigarettes were being used simultaneously.

Results And Regulation

The FDA is in the process of deciding how heavily e-cigarettes will be regulated.
Image: Electronic Cigarette Consumer Reviews

The study was limited by the small sample size of people already using e-cigarettes at the beginning of the trial. The small sample size made it difficult to prove the results would be easily replicated.

The results are based on the idea that e-cigarette users are becoming conditioned to enjoy sensation-seeking behavior, which could make them more likely to smoke traditional cigarettes. Some also argue that vaping is more attractive to younger generations.

“E-cigarettes are not subject to many laws that regulate traditional cigarettes, such as age limits on sales, taxation and labeling requirements,” said lead author Brian A. Primack, MD, PhD, director of CRMTH and assistant vice chancellor for health and society in Pitt’s Schools of the Health Sciences.

“They also come in youth-oriented flavorings that laws have limited in traditional cigarettes, such as apple bubble gum and chocolate candy cane.”

These individuals may have transitioned to smoking tobacco cigarettes regardless. But when the authors adjusted the study to include additional factors and sensation-seeking tendencies, there was still a link between e-cigarette use and a transition to traditional cigarettes.

The study authors cite three main reasons that e-cigarettes might be a gateway to traditional smoking:

• E-cigarettes deliver nicotine more slowly than traditional cigarettes, allowing a new user to advance to cigarette smoking as he or she becomes tolerant of nicotine side effects.

• Unlike other forms of nicotine, such as smokeless tobacco, e-cigarettes are designed to mimic the behavioral and sensory act of cigarette smoking, allowing the user to become accustomed to the act of smoking.

• E-cigarettes are not subject to the same regulations as traditional cigarettes, potentially renormalizing the act of smoking after decades of public health efforts to shift public norms around smoking.

The FDA is in the process of analyzing data from various studies to make decisions on how to regulate e-cigarettes. Some hope that e-cigarettes could be a healthier alternative to traditional cigarettes, whereas others believe the products could create a new generation of nicotine addicts.

“It will be important to continue surveillance among youth of both e-cigarette use and overlap with use of other tobacco products,” according to the study authors.

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Australian researchers used data from the Global Burden of Disease Project to determine the most serious risk factors that can lead to premature death.

A 23-year study shows that smoking, high blood pressure and poor diet are major causes of premature death in the U.S.

The Australian study illustrates global trends related to changing risk factors that lead to early death. Identifying these factors can help policymakers discover threats to population health in order to find solutions to prevent premature death.

The Study

When researchers begun the study in 1990, the major risk factors contributed to 25 million deaths worldwide.  The number increased to almost 31 million deaths during the last year of data collection.
Image: Kent News

The study, published in The Lancet, was conducted by researchers at the University of Washington and the University of Melbourne. Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, it “evaluates how much of the burden of disease observed in a given year can be attributed to past exposure to a risk.”

The researchers collaborated with an international consortium working on the Global Burden of Disease Project, providing a systematic analysis of the data collected.

The study took place from 1990 to 2013 in 188 countries. Researchers measured 79 risk factors that contributed to millions of deaths throughout the 23-year study, including behavioral, environmental, occupational, metabolic and clustered risks.

In 1990, these factors contributed to 25 million deaths. In 2013, the factors had killed almost 31 million people globally.

Previously, the major risk factors included unwashed hands, child and maternal malnutrition, and unsafe water and sanitation. By 2013, smoking, poor diet and high blood pressure have become the most prominent risk factors.

In Australia, the main risk factor is high blood pressure, followed by smoking and high body mass index. In men, the biggest growing risk factor is drug use. In women, the decrease in health is caused by diabetes-related illness, with a 68 percent increase since 1990. Diabetes-related illnesses and high body mass index as a cause of death has increased from 35 percent to 47 percent throughout the study.

Global Risk Factors

Data comes from the Global Burden of Disease Study, a comprehensive research project that assesses mortality and disability from illnesses, injuries, and risk factors.
Image: Enki Village

The top risk factors worldwide include:

• High body mass index is the main risk in the Middle East and Latin America.
• Household air pollution is a most serious health risk in South and Southeast Asia.
• Unsafe water and childhood malnutrition is the biggest risk in India.
• Alcohol use is the second major risk in Russia.
• Smoking causes the most damage in developed countries such as the United Kingdom.
• Child malnutrition, unsafe water, lack of sanitation, unsafe sex, and alcohol use are prominent health risks throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
• Child malnutrition is a global issue, accounting for one in five deaths of children under five-years-old.
• Unsafe sex is a worldwide risk, causing 82 percent of HIV/AIDS deaths and 94 percent of HIV/AIDS deaths in 15 to 19 year olds in 2013. The global burden of unsafe sex increased in 1990 and hit a high point in 2005.

In 2013, the highest number of deaths in the U.S. for both sexes include: 

“There’s great potential to improve health by avoiding certain risks like smoking and poor diet as well as tackling environmental risks like air pollution,” according to Dr. Christopher Murray, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) Director.

Murray believes that it is the responsibility of policymakers to enact progressive laws to prevent premature death.

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The long-term health effects of e-cigarettes are not yet known

The amount of teenagers who admitted to using e-cigarettes tripled from 2013 to 2014. In just one year’s time, the statistic for high schoolers who smoked e-cigarettes rose from 4.5 percent to 13.4 percent, and for middle schoolers, it rose from 1.1 percent to 3.9 percent.

The report illustrates that “current e-cigarette use has surpassed current use of every other tobacco product overall, including conventional cigarettes.”

In addition to the fact that e-cigarettes are marketed to assist with quitting conventional cigarettes, they can be smoked inside public places. They are increasingly getting trendier, with the liquid nicotine juice being offered in fun flavors like Pina Colada, Banana Split and Nestlé’s Nerds rock candy. Due to modern technology and taste, the study confirms that as their popularity rises, e-cigarettes are more appealing to young people.

DailyMail

As the demand for these devices continues to grow, health professionals are becoming concerned that people of all ages have forgotten the dangers of nicotine. Although many of the harmful chemicals of conventional cigarettes are eliminated, e-cigarettes could be a starting point for traditional tobacco use and cause health issues that have yet to be discovered.

“Adolescence is a critical time for brain development. Nicotine exposure at a young age may cause lasting harm to brain development, promote addiction, and lead to sustained tobacco use,” said Center for Disease Control director Tom Frieden in an article on Discovery.

The devices are largely unregulated, and the long-term health effects of e-cigarettes have not yet emerged. The CDC asserts the importance of adolescence in brain development, and urges young people not to use nicotine at all. E-cigarettes could harm the brain and lead to traditional cigarette use, addiction and premature death, and ultimately should be avoided by all.

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