A recent research suggests use of e-cigarettes may not be useful in helping people quit smoking. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had earlier suggest that smokers could switch from puffing cigarettes to using e-cigarettes if they were unable to quit smoking.
Smokers would have to completely switch to e-cigarettes and avoid relapsing to regular cigarettes.
JAMA Network Open report suggests that e-cigarettes weren’t very helpful to keep smokers away from regular cigarettes.
This study was carry out by Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at the University of California San Diego and Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health.
Researchers claim that this was the first study of its kind.
What is E-Cigarettes?
E-cigarettes are battery-operate devices that heat a heterogenous liquid to make an aerosol.
This liquid is made of nicotine, added flavours, and other chemicals.
The aerosol is consider to be a substitute for smoking cigarettes.
A report published on 19th October 2021 online issue of JAMA Network Open says that the study
“show that switching to e-cigarettes even on a daily basis was not associate with helping smokers remain abstinent from cigarettes.”
Dr. John P. Pierce, Distinguished Professor at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, Said :
“Our findings suggest that individuals who quit smoking and switched to e-cigarettes or other tobacco products actually increased their risk of a relapse back to smoking over the next year by 8.5 percentage points compared to those who quit using all tobacco products.”
E-cigarettes rose to popularity as medical experts earlier suggested them as a way to stay off cigarettes.
Dr. John P. Pierce Suggested :
“The evidence indicates that switching to e-cigarettes made it less likely, not more likely, to stay off of cigarettes.”
The data that the researchers use was taken from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) longitudinal study on tobacco use and its effect on people.
Also study was undertaken by the US-based National Institute on Drug Abuse and the US FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products.
The researchers team took into account 13,604 smokers between 2013 and 2015.
Observations were base on two sequential annual surveys that explore the changes in the use of 12 tobacco products.
At the first annual conclusions, 9.4% of smokers quit cigarettes.
From these “former smokers,” 62.9% of individuals left tobacco while 37.1% switch to another form of tobacco.
At the second annual conclusion, the authors compare the smokers who had left tobacco and those who had switched to e-cigarettes.
Researchers found that e-cigarette use were 8.5% more likely to relapse to cigarette smoking.
The e-cigarette use likely to try to quit smoking again and be off the cigarette for three months on average.
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