E-cigarettes were found to be less effective than more traditional smoking cessation aids by people who used them to quit smoking, a new study found.
The study, which was published in the journal BMJ on Monday, examined the most recent 2017 to 2019 data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study, which tracks tobacco use among Americans over time.
Proponents argue that this will help cigarette smokers successfully transition from traditional cigarettes to e-cigarettes, but a study conducted by the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health found fewer successful quit attempts when e-cigarettes were used as a smoking cessation aid, as well as no reduction in relapse rates among those who quit using e-cigarettes.
"We found little evidence that smokers took part in the 2017 surge in e-cigarette sales, which was associated with the introduction of the high-nicotine JUUL e-cigarette," co-author John P. Pierce, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at UC San Diego and UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, said.
Between 2017 and 2019, researchers looked at the effectiveness of e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation aid in 3,578 smokers who tried to quit and 1,323 recent former smokers, some of whom converted to e-cigarette use.
In 2017, 32.8% of this nationally representative sample of smokers in the United States reported making a recent effort to quit. 12.6% said they used e-cigarettes to help them quit, 2.5% said they used another tobacco product, 20.6% said they used simply a nicotine replacement therapy or a pharmaceutical aid, and 64.3% said they quit "cold turkey" without using any products.
Among the 12.4% of research participants who had recently quit smoking, 15.3% had moved to e-cigarettes, 15.9% used another tobacco product, and 68.8% used neither conventional tobacco nor e-cigarettes.
Around 2.2% of individuals who had transitioned to e-cigarettes reported using e-cigarettes with nicotine levels greater than 4%, while 1.2% reported using JUUL e-cigarettes, which were touted as best replicating nicotine intake from cigarette smoking.
Pierce and his colleagues have previously discovered that e-cigarettes can serve as a gateway drug for many teenagers. A 2021 study found that youth aged 12 to 24 who used e-cigarettes were three times as likely to become everyday cigarette users in the future.
Vaping by teenagers has been linked to psychological issues, headaches, stomachaches, and significant nicotine addictions, in addition to a link to later cigarette smoking.
According to the American Lung Association, in 2019, teens began to die from lung disease that was ultimately linked to compounds in vape liquids, including vitamin E acetate.
