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October 22, 2021 – Ex-smokers who use e-cigarettes are just as likely to smoke, compared to those who use other nicotine alternatives, reveal new evidence.
A recent study found that people who quit smoking and then started using e-cigarettes were just as likely to return to traditional tobacco cigarettes as people who switched to nicotine gum and other products.
Complete smoking cessation was the most effective strategy. Overall, the use of e-cigarettes or other tobacco products is associated with an 8.5% higher chance of quitting smoking again than people who are “cold turkeys”.
The study was published on October 19 in JAMA open network.
Interestingly, the findings come a week after the FDA announced its first e-cigarette authorization for three Vuse-flavored vaping products. Data from manufacturer RJ Reynolds show that products “may benefit adult smokers who are addicted who switch to these products – completely or with a significant reduction in cigarette consumption – by reducing their exposure to harmful chemicals”. says in a statement to the FDA.
Electronic termination?
“We were very surprised by the FDA’s permission to allow some e-cigarettes to be placed on the market to help smokers quit,” said Dr. John P. Pierce, lead author of the study on smoking relapse.
This paper asks a different question about e-cigarettes than two previous studies by Pierce and colleagues. A December 2020 study evaluated e-cigarettes as a long-term help to quit smoking. Another study conducted in September 2020 compared the use of e-cigarettes, other aids and smoking cessation.
But “none of our work has benefited from the use of e-cigarettes to quit,” said Pierce, an honorary professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego.
Therefore, the researchers decided to check whether people who have already quit smoking are more likely to return to smoking within 1 year – to return – if they switch to e-cigarettes, a product such as nicotine patches or simply quit altogether. .
Almost 1 in 4 quitters switched to e-cigarettes
Pierce and colleagues studied 13,604 cigarette smokers in a study of the U.S. Tobacco and Health Assessment. At the first annual follow-up, 9.4% had recently given up.
Among this group of 1,228 who recently left, 37% switched to tobacco-free tobacco products, of which 23% switched to e-cigarettes. The remaining 63% were left without tobacco. Whites who are not Spaniards, people who have been most addicted to tobacco, and those with an annual income of more than $ 35,000 are more likely to switch to e-cigarettes.
To complicate matters, some people smoke cigarettes and use e-cigarettes where smoking is not allowed. But this is not considered a “harm reduction” goal when switching to a supposedly safer product, Pierce and colleagues say.
“The potential for harm reduction with e-cigarettes requires those who try to quit successfully to give up cigarettes completely and not become consumers of dual products.”
“Hotly debated” topic
Meanwhile, the controversy over e-cigarettes as a way to quit smoking continues.
The issue “continues to be hotly debated,” wrote Dr. Terry F. Pechacek in a commentary published in the study.
“These new findings complement the growing body of evidence from randomized and observational studies examining the effect of switching to e-cigarettes to smoking cessation,” said Pechacek, a professor of health management and policy at Georgia State University in Atlanta.
The study, he says, “provides additional evidence that suggests that switching to e-cigarettes in the real world may lead to a higher recurrence rate back to smoking.”
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