By: Madison Davis MPH Candidate, Brown University School of Public Health
Vaping is an ongoing, dangerous, trend among adolescents. The increase in harmful side effects associated with vaping has led to concern among providers and public health officials. A vape, or an e-cigarette, allows individuals inhale a heated aerosol that usually contains nicotine1. A monitoring study in 2019 concluded that the prevalence of vaping increased two-fold among eighth grade, tenth grade, and twelfth grade students between 2017 and 20191. It is important to observe the increase in vaping among young individuals because of the detrimental effects nicotine has on developing teenagers2. During the adolescent period, generally defined as between 12 and 18 years of age, there are critical changes in cognitive and executive function, working memory, reward processing, emotional regulation, and motivated behavior2.