The study classified 7,625 adults in the 2022 Health Survey for England into six mutually exclusive nicotine-use groups and modelled seven self-reported condition groups and multimorbidity, adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity, deprivation, education, alcohol and physical activity. Odds of any condition were highest among dual users (aOR 2.35) and vapers with a smoking history (2.13), above exclusive smokers (1.87) and former smokers (1.44). Among current vapers who had never smoked the estimate was 1.24 (95% CI 0.58-2.63), and no disease-specific association in that group survived correction for multiple comparisons.
Why it is interesting: It separates never-smoking vapers from ever-smoking vapers in a national sample, though a cross-section cannot say which came first, the nicotine or the illness.