Do youth who vape exhibit risky health lifestyles? Monitoring the future, 2017

Previous research links cigarette smoking with an array of unhealthy behaviors including poor diet, poor sleep quality, and reduced levels of physical exercise. To date, however, limited research has explored whether vaping nicotine (or marijuana) is associated with these same health risk behaviors. This paper addresses this gap in the literature by examining associations between vaping (nicotine or marijuana) and poor diet, poor sleep quality, and low levels of exercise in a sample of 7765 young adolescents (grades 8 and 10) enrolled in American schools in 2017. The data were analyzed in 2019. The results suggest that youths who vaped nicotine (or marijuana) did not exhibit significant elevations in risky health behavior outcomes relative to abstaining youths. Even so, cigarette smoking and recent use of marijuana through traditional means are significantly associated with risky health outcomes. •Cigarettes have been linked to unhealthy behaviors and lifestyles.•Research on vaping and health lifestyles, however, is lacking.•The current study employs data from Monitoring the Future, 2017.•Cigarette and traditional marijuana use were linked to risky health lifestyles.•Still, marijuana and nicotine vaping were not linked to risky health lifestyles.