Study Raises Doubts E-Cigarettes Help Users Quit Smoking

A study conducted by researchers affiliated with the School of Public Health at Georgia State University found that smokers who use e-cigarettes and similar devices were no more likely to quit than smokers who didn’t use such products. Examining data recorded from 2015 to 2016, the study found that 90 percent of those who used both e-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes (i.e., “dual users”) still smoked one year later (NIDA, 2018).

Though 88 percent of dual users indicated that a desire to quit smoking motivated their e-cigarette use, and 46 percent of them reported attempting to “completely quit” smoking during the study’s duration, only 9 percent of them reported successful smoking cessation at the study’s conclusion (NIDA, 2018). At completion of the research, more than half of the dual user demographic indicated their continued status as dual users, while more than 37 percent of it indicated that they still smoked, but had given up on e-cigarettes (NIDA, 2018).

Though the study did find that dual users were more likely to attempt to quit smoking than other smokers, they achieved no greater degree of success, when compared to the latter cohort (NIDA, 2018). While the study indicated that e-cigarettes resulted in relatively few successful instances of smoking cessation, it would have been interesting to see if dual users reported smoking a greater or lesser number of cigarettes daily, when compared with traditional smokers.

References

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). (2018). Study casts doubt on effectiveness of e-cigs for smoking cessation. Retrieved from https://www.drugabuse.gov/news-events/news-releases/2018/07/study-casts-doubt-effectiveness-e-cigs-smoking-cessation