Ever since e-cigarettes became commercially available, the possibility that they could be useful in helping those who wanted to quit smoking has been the subject of controversy. Several studies have also been carried out that have shown that e-cigarettes contain substances that are harmful to health and, therefore, although they are considered less harmful than traditional tobacco, they are not a healthy alternative to smoking.
Now, however, a new study has shown that e-cigarettes do indeed help you quit smoking. This is the largest study carried out to date in the United States that has shown that the use of e-cigarettes has induced participants to quit smoking, even if at the beginning of the study they had stated that they had no intention of quitting of smoking.
The study has been carried out by a group of researchers from the MUSC Hollings Cancer Center and its results have been published in eClinicalMedicine. “This is not a panacea for smoking cessation,” said Matthew Carpenter, first author of the paper and co-director of the Cancer Control Research Program at Hollings. However, the researcher admits his surprise when he found that the hypotheses they wanted to test were confirmed.
“Those who received the e-cigarette product demonstrated greater abstinence and reduced harm, compared to those who did not.”
“It’s rarely the case that you’re right about almost everything you predicted,” he says, but adds that, in this case, “it was one effect after another: No matter how we looked at it, those who received the cigarette product e-mail demonstrated greater abstinence and reduced harm, compared with those who did not receive it.
Fewer “quit attempts”
Carpenter points out that previous studies that found a benefit in e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation aid had been highly structured, in the sense that they recruited individuals who wanted to quit smoking and gave them very specific instructions on how to use electronic cigarettes. This has led many to believe that their results cannot be applied directly to real life.
So Carpenter and his colleagues decided to design their study with what they call a “naturalistic, hands-off approach” to mimic real-world conditions as closely as possible. In this way, they selected both people who wanted to quit smoking and those who did not want to quit. A group of people were given e-cigarettes by being told they could use them or not use them as much as they wanted, and a control group received nothing.
The study showed that people in the group given e-cigarettes were more likely to report withdrawal from traditional cigarettes. They were also more likely to report that they had reduced the number of cigarettes they smoked per day and the number of “quit attempts.” Quit attempts are an important measure, because people usually need several attempts before they can successfully quit.
The study included people from 11 US cities and lasted four years. Carpenter originally intended to collect biochemical samples from participants in the Charleston area to verify their self-reports of smoking behavior, but the COVID pandemic prevented collecting such samples in person. Despite this impediment, according to the investigator, the participants’ self-reports of their smoking behavior are still considered highly reliable.
The researchers hope their findings will be used as policymakers decide how to handle e-cigarettes for public health purposes. “No one wants e-cigarettes in the hands of children, and we should do everything we can to stop that. But we shouldn’t deny this option to adult smokers who otherwise can’t quit,” Carpenter concluded.
