Cigarettes may not be as trendy as they once were, but teenagers and young adults are still developing nicotine habits. In Canada, nearly half of young adults (aged 20-24) and 29 per cent of youth (aged 15-19) have vaped at least once in their lifetime. Additionally, the recreational use of oral synthetic nicotine pouches – designed as nicotine replacement or smoking cessation therapies for people trying to quit smoking cigarettes – has become increasingly popular among teenagers and young adults with no previous smoking history, leading Health Canada to introduce new measures to regulate the commercialization and advertising of these products.

Despite these evolving measures, there is little understanding of the impacts of e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches on overall health amongst younger adults. Led by assistant professor Nicolle Domnik (Biomedical and Molecular Sciences; Medicine), a group of undergraduate research students at Queen’s Health Sciences’ Discovery Labs is addressing this knowledge gap by investigating how vaping and the use of nicotine pouches impact cardiovascular and autonomic functions such as heart rate, blood pressure, and sleep.

“The idea for this research came up through conversations with various students. They had noticed these increasing trends not only on campus but with their siblings – many of whom are teenagers attending high school,” says Dr. Domnik, an expert in cardiorespiratory physiology, including respiratory diseases related to smoking exposure. The team has been developing their study design and protocols since last year and will soon start recruiting participants on campus.

While other universities have been conducting studies on the acute impacts of vaping – for example, looking particularly at lung damage or what happens in the body while or immediately after vaping in a controlled environment – Queen’s study is unique as it explores the effects of nicotine on cardiovascular health and sleeping patterns.

The study will look at younger adults that have been using alternative nicotine delivery devices such as e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches for just a couple of years and in the absence of cigarette smoking.

Although the harms of tobacco smoking on the lungs and overall health are well known, they do not necessarily translate directly to e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches as these have different chemical compositions and mechanisms for nicotine delivery (e.g., inhaled versus absorbed by the oral mucosa, respectively).

In collaboration with respirologists Sebastián Rodríguez-Llamazares (Medicine) and Alberto Neder (Medicine) and clinical chemistry collaborators, Dr. Domnik’s study team will focus on autonomic nervous control, which regulates bodily functions such as heart rate and sleep quality. The research group is also conducting a research survey to establish the prevalence of nicotine pouch use on campus, and to better understand motivations behind this behaviour among post-secondary students.

Because both e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches are potential smoking cessation devices, studies often compare their users to individuals with longer histories of cigarette smoking, usually more mature adults. By contrast, the current investigation will look at younger adults that have been using these alternative nicotine delivery devices for just a couple of years and in the absence of cigarette smoking.

“We will characterize what is happening in the body on an average day for a young user,” explains Claerwen Sladen-Dew, a recent Bachelor of Health Sciences graduate and one of the students who led the development of the research project. “We will monitor their heart rate variability, measure their blood pressure, and quantify the amount of nicotine metabolite in their urine. We will also complete questionnaires to learn about their physical activity, mental health, and sleep, and track their daily movement and sleep behaviours.”

The Integrative Cardiopulmonary Physiology Lab research group, led by Dr. Domnik, is part of the Respiratory Investigation Unit. Launched last fall, the collaborative Discovery Lab space was designed to provide undergraduate students with team-based, interdisciplinary research training opportunities.

“By working collaboratively, our students can not only tackle a project that would be bigger in scope than what they would be able to do independently, but they will also be cultivating different types of skills, including teamwork and project management skills."

– Dr. Nicolle Domnik

Biomedical and Molecular Sciences; Medicine