E-cigarettes help quit smoking according to study
Published: Thursday, Feb 15th 2024, 12:21
Updated At: Thursday, Feb 15th 2024, 12:22
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If you want to quit smoking tobacco cigarettes, e-cigarettes can be an effective aid. This is the conclusion of the world's largest study on the subject, which was conducted by a research group led by the University of Bern.
The electrically powered devices, which emit nicotine in the form of vapor, are an effective aid to quitting smoking tobacco cigarettes, the University of Bern wrote on Thursday. With the help of such e-cigarettes, quitting tobacco is around twice as successful as without them.
The researchers, who published their findings in "The New England Journal of Medicine", investigated the efficacy, safety and toxicology of e-vaporizers as part of a comprehensive smoking cessation consultation - compared with an equally comprehensive smoking cessation consultation without e-vaporizers.
Over a period of six months, a total of 1246 participants were interviewed in two groups and clinically examined at the five study centers in German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland. Any adverse health events that occurred were also recorded in detail during this time.
Increased abstinence rate
The results showed that the addition of e-vaporizers to conventional smoking cessation measures significantly increased the rate of abstinence from tobacco smoking. The abstinence rate from tobacco smoking was 53 percent in the group with e-vaporizers and 32 percent in the group without vapes. According to the study, this corresponds to 67 percent more abstinence with e-cigarettes compared to no e-vapers.
According to the study, e-cigarettes, which produce significantly fewer harmful substances than tobacco cigarettes, do not help to reduce nicotine dependence. In order to kick the nicotine habit, the researchers advocated a two-stage approach: by using e-vaporizers, smokers could first reduce the risk of tobacco-related diseases until they later decide to stop using nicotine altogether. Those affected should therefore first try to quit tobacco and then stop using e-vaporizers in order to get away from nicotine as well.
Irritated airways
According to the researchers, e-vaporizers are not without risks. Even if e-vaporizers release far fewer toxic substances than tobacco cigarettes, they still contain carcinogenic substances. In addition, nicotine can also lead to addictive behavior, particularly among young people.
In addition, the use of e-cigarettes was associated with more mild side effects such as irritated airways than not using such devices. The nicotine in e-vaporizers irritates the throat more than in conventional cigarettes, it was said. These would contain additives to alleviate precisely these symptoms.
With regard to serious side effects, however, adverse events did not occur more frequently in the group with e-vaporizers than in the group without e-vaporizers.
Fewer illnesses?
Health problems such as coughing or sputum production were lower in the group of e-vapers than in the control group. According to the researchers, coughing and sputum production are typical symptoms of smokers' lungs. A reduction in these symptoms could indicate that smokers who consistently switch to e-vaping and no longer consume tobacco could suffer less from tobacco-related diseases in the long term, even if they continue to use e-vaporizers, the researchers said.
"Our study confirms previous findings that e-vaporizers are effective for quitting tobacco smoking," said study leader Reto Auer from the Bern Institute of Family Medicine at the University of Bern and Unisanté, University Center for General Medicine and Public Health in Lausanne, in the press release. "It also shows the benefits they bring in the context of intensive stop-smoking advice, as we have in Switzerland."
According to the information provided, the study is the largest of its kind in the world on this topic. It involved researchers from the fields of family medicine, pulmonary medicine, toxicology, addiction medicine and epidemiology. Study centers in Bern, Geneva, Lausanne, Zurich and St. Gallen were involved. The project was led by the University of Bern.
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