Investigation of the Association Between e-Cigarette Smoking and Oral Mucosal Health Status Among Young People: Protocol for a Case-Control Trial

Abstract

Background Given the paucity of current safety studies related to e-cigarettes, there are no definitive studies on whether e-cigarettes cause oral mucosal lesions or even oral cancer. Although it is still undetermined whether e-cigarettes are harmless, an increasing number of teenagers choose to smoke e-cigarettes and believe that they are not harmful to the human body. Objective This aims to determine whether e-cigarettes cause damage to the oral mucosa. This study also aims to evaluate the association between e-cigarette smoking and oral mucous membrane lesions in young adults. The objectives are to (1) compare the oral mucosal conditions in participants with and without e-cigarette smoking habits, (2) assess the effect of the amount of e-cigarette smoking on oral mucosal conditions, and (3) assess the effect of the duration of e-cigarette smoking on oral mucosal conditions. Methods In this prospective study, 304 youths aged 15 to 24 years (n=152, 50% who smoke only e-cigarettes and n=152, 50% who do not smoke e-cigarettes or cigarettes) will be divided into 2 groups for a controlled study. Whether e-cigarettes cause oral mucosal lesions will be verified by comparing the odds of oral mucosal lesions in the 2 experimental groups. For this experiment, the predefined power is 80% (P=.04), and the predefined proportions of groups 1 and 2 are 11% and 2.5%, respectively. Results This experiment is at the conceptualization phase and has not yet been carried out. Experimenters have not been recruited and no data have been collected. Conclusions e-Cigarettes are still an unfamiliar topic to the public, and it is still unknown whether they can cause damage to the oral mucosa. This experiment aims to find out whether there is a link between the 2. There are still many limitations in this study, such as the lack of categorization of e-cigarettes and the lack of testing methods for oral mucosal status. These limitations are expected to be addressed in the future as the experiment is formally conducted and further optimized. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) PRR1-10.2196/53644