The debate is not new. For years, there has been discussion about the efficacy or not of the electronic cigarettes, as one more method to stop to smoke. Some health authorities have suggested that smokers who cannot quit may benefit from switching from smoking cigarettes to vaporizing e-cigarettes if they switch completely.
However, few studies have been done on whether smokers can transition to e-cigarettes (those battery-powered devices that heat a liquid made of nicotine, flavorings, and other chemicals to produce an aerosol that users inhale into their mouths). lungs) without having a relapse.
A new study, published in JAMA Network Open, sheds light on this question. Their conclusion: Using e-cigarettes, even on a daily basis, did not help smokers to quit successfully, according to researchers from the Herbert Wertheim College of Public Health and Human Longevity Sciences at the University of California, San Diego and UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center.
“Our findings suggest that people who quit smoking and switched to e-cigarettes or other tobacco products actually increased their risk of going back to smoking in the next year by 8.5 percentage points compared to those who stopped using all tobacco products, “explains professor and first author, John P. Pierce.
Tracking ex-smokers
The researchers used data from the nationally representative Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) longitudinal study conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products.
The team identified 13,604 smokers between 2013 and 2015 which were followed during two sequential annual surveys to explore changes in the use of 12 tobacco products. At the first annual follow-up, 9.4% of these established smokers had stopped smoking.
Now considered “ex-smokers”, 62.9% of these people remained tobacco free, while 37.1% had switched to another form of tobacco consumption. Of these recent smokers who switched to another product, 22.8% used e-cigarettes, and 17.6% of those who switched used e-cigarettes on a daily basis.
Recent ex-smokers who switched to e-cigarettes were more likely to be non-Hispanic white, have higher incomes, have higher tobacco dependence scores, and consider e-cigarettes to be less harmful than traditional cigarettes.
E-cigarettes or other tobacco products
At the second annual follow-up, the authors compared ex-smokers who did not use tobacco with those who had switched to e-cigarettes or other tobacco products.
People who switched to any other form of tobacco use, including e-cigarettes, had more likely to relapse compared to ex-smokers who had quit all tobacco, by a total of 8.5 percentage points.
Among recent ex-smokers who abstained from all tobacco products, 50% quit for 12 months or more at second follow-up and were judged to have quit successfully; this compared to 41.5% of recent ex-smokers who switched to any other form of tobacco use, including e-cigarettes.
While people who switched were more likely to relapse, they were also more likely to try to quit smoking again and quit smoking for at least three months at the second follow-up.
A failed way
“This is the first study to take an in-depth look at whether switching to a less harmful nicotine source can be sustained over time without relapsing to smoking. If switching to e-cigarettes was a viable way to quit smoking, then those who switched to e-cigarettes should have much lower relapse rates when smoking cigarettes. We found no evidence of this, “Pierce concludes.
This information does not replace in any case the diagnosis or prescription by a doctor. It is important to go to a specialist when symptoms occur in case of illness and never self-medicate.
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