A 2023 study claiming a link between e-cigarette use and lung disease prevalence, based on NHANES survey data, has been retracted. The paper "E-cigarette use and prevalence of lung diseases among the U.S. population: a NHANES survey," published in the Journal of Investigative Medicine was pulled on May 27, 2026, after a reader flagged concerns about the accuracy of the underlying data.
A subsequent investigation by the publisher also found unresolved issues with authorship, including an unusually large author list and unclear individual contributions. When asked to provide supporting data and a breakdown of who did what, the authors could not adequately respond and did not reply when notified of the retraction.
Read the retraction notice: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10815589261453801