Background: Estimates of teenage problem gambling worldwide vary between 0.2–12.3%1 and links with tobacco and cannabis use are established2. Irish estimates and links with e-cigarettes are scarce. We examine the relationship between problem gambling and substance use including e-cigarettes.

Methods We use data from the 2019 European School Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs (ESPAD), a nationally representative, cross-sectional survey of 1,949 15-16-year-old students. Substance use was measured by use of tobacco, e-cigarettes, or cannabis in the previous year (yes or no). Problem gambling prevalence was measured by whether participants had lied about how much they gambled and/or if they had felt the need to bet more and more money. Frequencies and logistic regression analyses were carried out using Stata v16.1.

Results Teenage problem gambling prevalence in Ireland is high at 8.4%. All three substance use variables were significantly associated with problem gambling: tobacco (OR:2.13, 95% CI:1.46-3.13), e-cigarette use (OR:1.80, 95% CI:1.30-2.49) and cannabis use (OR:1.70, 95% CI:1.18-2.44). In our multivariable logistic regression model including all variables, teenage problem gambling was significantly associated with (male) gender (aOR:0.56, 95% CI: 0.34-0.90), trouble with the police (aOR:2.13, 95% CI:1.33-3.43) and lower parental monitoring (aOR:1.72, 95% CI:1.08-2.76).

Conclusions Teenage problem gambling shares many of the same risks as smoking, e-cigarette use and cannabis use and therefore interventions to prevent substance use should also take account of problem gambling.

This was included in 'ERS International Congress 2023 abstracts'. There is no full text.