Protocol for VERITAS, (Vaping Effects: Real-World International Surveillance) Study: A multi-country, six-year prospective cohort study of daily vapers with very limited smoking history.

It is clear that vaping (e-cigarette use) poses little if any health risk, and in particular is far less harmful than smoking. However, it is not clear whether there is some small health risk from vaping. Most research on health outcomes has involved people who formerly smoked, and thus who have residual health risks that are far greater than any plausible level of risk from vaping, making a sufficiently precise estimate impossible. Without studies of people who vape but who have smoked very little, it is unlikely there will ever be useful epidemiologic estimates. In addition, almost all published information about the characteristics and behaviors of people who vape focuses on people who used to smoke. The VERITAS (Vaping Effects: Real-World International Surveillance) Study, whose protocol is reported here, will begin to help address this missing information. This observational study will assemble an international cohort of 2000 or more people who vape regularly and have very little history of smoking. They will be followed over time and surveyed frequently to assess their health status, health events, behavioral choices, and motivations. Multimedia survey tools will capture more precise behavioral information than is normally measured. The assembled cohort will be available for, and is expected to be used for, embedded observational clinical research of subgroups of the study population.