Abstract 9.14 

Background: There are myriad barriers to equality, including health equality, for persons with disabilities [1]. Young adults with long-lasting health conditions, impairments or disabilities (LHC) face pervasive social and material hardship [2]. Smoking is a leading cause of morbidity and premature death, contributing substantially to inequalities [3,4] yet little is known about smoking and even less about e-cigarette-use in this population. We report on smoking and e-cigarette use in Irish 20-year-olds reporting LHC.

Methods: We use data from Wave 4 of Growing Up in Ireland Cohort ’98, n=5,190, when participants were 20 years old [3]. Ever and current smoking and e-cigarette use were measured by whether participants responded yes to “ever” used and yes to “occasional” or “daily” use.

Results: 22.2% (n=1151) had one or more LHC (Table 1). Learning (10.5%, n=543), psychological/emotional (7.0%, n=365) and pain (5.7%, n=297) were the most frequently reported difficulties (Table 2). Young adults with LHC had statistically significantly higher prevalence of current smoking (41.0 vs 36.5%) and current e-cigarette use (15.6% vs 12.6%) (Table 3).

Conclusion: Smoking and e-cigarette use is significantly higher in 20-year-olds with LHC adding further inequality to the lives of these rarely-surveyed young adults. Targeted surveys and interventions are required.

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