Youngsters who are glued to social media are more likely to vape and smoke cigarettes, research suggests.

After analysing data from 10,808 people (aged 10 to 25) in the UK, a research team from the Imperial College London School of Public Health found that young people who spend more than seven hours a day on social media were nearly eight times more likely to smoke cigarettes and four times more likely to vape.

Published in the medical journal Thorax, the study shows that 0.8 per cent of kids who do not use social media vape, but the number increases to 2.4 per cent among those who use social media for just one to three hours daily, and increases to 4 per cent for those that spend seven-plus hours scrolling.

According to The Daily Telegraph, Dr Nick Hopkinson, professor of respiratory medicine at Imperial College and first author of the paper, suggested that advertisements, paid influencers presenting vapes and cigarettes as fashionable, and the addictive nature of social media could all be behind the trends.

“Social media may be driving cigarette smoking and e-cigarette use through both direct, targeted advertisements and the use of paid influencers by the tobacco industry. Voluntary codes seem unlikely to achieve this, and the introduction and enforcement on bans on material that promote this should be considered,” the researchers wrote.

The study was conducted by Imperial College and the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm.