Vaping and Mental Fog – The Connection Between E-Cigarette Use and Mental Function

Over the past several years, there has been a slow decrease in the number of cigarette smokers around the world. However, the number of vapers – people who use some form of e-cigarette – has risen exponentially. In 2011, the World Health Organization reported that about 7 million adults were vapers; by 2018, that number had shot up to 41 million. It is estimated that by 2021, there will be about 55 million adults globally who vape (“Vaping: How popular are e-cigarettes?”, 2019). Youth vaping is also on the rise. In America, between 2017 and 2018, the number of high school vapers rose 78% to a total of 3.05 million, while the number of middle school vapers rose 48% to a total of 570,000 (“2018 NYTS Data: A Startling Rise in Youth E-cigarette Use,” 2020). Though vaping is less harmful than smoking cigarettes because it contains less harmful chemicals than cigarettes do, research suggests that vaping still has serious health consequences. Previous studies have found that vaping is associated with both chronic lung disease and asthma, while others have found that dual use of e-cigarettes and cigarettes is linked to heart disease (“5 Vaping Facts You Need to Know,” n.d.).

Now, two recent studies conducted by researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) have found that there is a strong connection between vaping and mental function. One study examined general associations between vaping and mental function for both adults and youth, while the other focused specifically on youth. Both studies used data from the National Youth Tobacco Survey and a Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System phone survey in order to understand smoking and vaping behaviors and their connection to “mental fog” – difficulty in concentration, poor memory, and poor decision making. The researchers compared 3 categories of people: people who don’t smoke or vape, people who vape or smoke, and people who vape and smoke. Both studies found that regardless of age, people who vaped or smoked had significantly higher amounts of mental fog than people who didn’t vape or smoke. People who vaped and smoked were even more likely to struggle with poor mental function (Xie, C. et al., 2020; Xie, L. et al., 2020). Additionally, it was noted that youth who started vaping between the ages of 8 and 13 were more likely to experience mental fog than those that started between the ages of 14 and 18 (Xie, C. et al., 2020).

Co-author of both studies Dr. Dongmei Li, an associate professor in URMC’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute, noted that these findings – particularly those related to youth– are of critical importance because they highlight the growing importance of curbing youth vaping, especially given the rise in teen and tween vaping over the past few years (“Vaping could cloud your thoughts, new studies suggest,” 2020). Overall, these findings add to the rapidly growing body of literature showing that vaping is not a healthy alternative to smoking and that vaping may have serious consequences for the body. In the future, with a better understanding of the chemical composition of e-cigarettes and more studies conducted, there may be new findings that more clearly illuminate these health consequences.