(CNN) Vaping or using e-cigarettes for a long period of time was associated with an increased risk of respiratory diseases -- including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD, chronic bronchitis and asthma -- in a new study.

The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine on Monday, is among the first bodies of research to examine the link between e-cigarette use and respiratory disease in the long-term, by analyzing e-cigarette use and respiratory disease during a three-year period.

"I was a little surprised that we could find evidence on incident lung disease in the longitudinal study, because three years is a while but most studies that look at the development of lung disease go over 10 to 20 years," said Stanton Glantz, senior author of the study and director of University of California, San Francisco's Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education.

"It's the first longitudinal study in the general population to link e-cigs with chronic lung disease," he said. "My guess is that if we were to come back and do this study in another five years, we would probably find bigger effects."

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The study involved analyzing data from 32,320 adults in the United States on whether the adults have ever been told by a health professional that they had lung or respiratory conditions and whether they ever used e-cigarettes or smoked cigarettes or other combustible tobacco, among other demographic and clinical variables.

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