Has increasing internet use due to smartphone uptake contributed to the decline in adolescent smoking?

Abstract

Introduction. The emergence of low-cost smartphone technology has coincided with major declines in adolescent smoking and other risk behaviours. This study explores the relationship between internet use and smoking in adolescents and investigates whether rising internet use contributed to the decline in smoking between 2012 and 2018. Methods. Data were drawn from a nationally representative New Zealand survey of students aged 14-15 (N = 11 299), conducted biennially between 2012 and 2018. We used logistic regression to explore the association between internet use and smoking and test whether increasing time on the internet was associated with declining adolescent smoking over the study period. Results. The proportion of students spending 5+ hours per day online increased from 15% to 35%. Heavy internet use was not a protective factor for smoking at the individual level. In 2016/2018, some types of past week internet use were associated with decreased risk of smoking (e.g. doing schoolwork, finding out about news), some were associated with increased risk (e.g. social media use) and others appeared to have no association with smoking (e.g. gaming, online shopping). The relative risk of smoking was lower in 2018 relative to 2012 (relative risk 0.68, 95% confidence interval 0.51, 0.90, after adjustment for demographic factors). Adding internet use to the model did not help to account for smoking decline. Discussion and Conclusions. We found no evidence that increasing time spent on the internet during the 2012-2018 period (during which smartphones became ubiquitous) contributed to the decline in adolescent smoking.

The great decline in adolescent risk behaviours: Unitary trend, separate trends, or cascade?

“…Heavy internet users (particularly social users) are more likely to smoke and drink than those who rarely use the internet (Ball et al, 2021;Brunborg and Burdzovic, 2019;de Looze et al, 2019;Iannotti et al, 2009;Koivusilta et al, 2005;Mu et al, 2015;Ng Fat et al, 2021;Vannucci et al, 2020;Vashishtha et al, 2021). Similarly, some studies have found a positive association between computer gaming and substance use (Halkjelsvik et al, 2021;Strizek et al, 2020;Van Rooij et al, 2014), although others have found no association (Ball et al, 2021;Kaur et al, 2020). One study investigated whether a rise in computer gaming was empirically linked to declining adolescent binge drinking in six Nordic countries, and found no association (Halkjelsvik et al, 2021).…”

Youth drinking in decline: Recent developments and future priorities

“…The health consequences of alcohol consumption were major concerns in many interviews, with discourses of dependence and harm featuring. Similarly, Ball et al [18] found a much stronger focus on health and social risks from drinking in interviews with contemporary teenagers than was present in archival interview data collected between 1999 and 2001. The use of similar methods and interview schedules 20 years apart in this study also drew out important shifts in how young people socialise, with online interactions taking the place of some face-to-face socialising.…”