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Manufacturers of electronic cigarettes and other vaping devices often tout their products as smoking cessation aids. But a new study suggests that devices have not helped many American smokers to quit.
In a study published Monday the journal PLOS One, researchers at Georgia State University, found American smokers who did not use electronic vape. In addition, over 90% of smokers who also smoked at the start of the study were still smoking a year later, according to the study. More than half of these smokers still smoked.
"These products have not fulfilled the promise of public health to help people in the United States quit."
Scott Weaver,
Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Georgia State, and senior author of the observational study. "We need to look at changes in their design, marketing or regulation that could help them become more effective as smoking cessation tools."
Yet, some experts have noted the percentage of "dual users" – The study smoking devices that quit smoking were higher, just under 10% of the overall dropout rate among American smokers.
The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, is the latest to date. a growing but contradictory body of research on the role that e-cigarettes play in the tobacco war. Some newspapers have found that electronic cigarettes help smokers to stop using traditional cigarettes, while others have found that this is not the case. A report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine concluded in January that evidence of promoting smoking cessation was limited.
The decline in smoking rates among adults accelerated over the next four years. proliferate, with more taxes on cigarettes and anti-smoking campaigns, the experts note. The rate was 13.9% in 2017, down 20.6% in 2009, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"Of course, the possibility is that e-cigarettes are part of it," he said.
Nancy Rigotti,
Director of the Center for Tobacco Research and Treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and a member of the expert committee that produced the report of the National Academies. She did not participate in the last study
Researchers in the state of Georgia analyzed the results of 858 adult smokers who participated in a survey in late summer 2015, as well as a follow-up survey a year later.
They stated that they had "found no evidence" that vaping devices in the United States in 2015-2016 "helped adult smokers quit at higher rates than smokers who did not use these products. "They cited several possible reasons for their findings, including that smokers might not get enough nicotine vaping to completely pass the cigarette."
Michael Eriksen,
The Dean of the School of Public Health of Georgia and lead author of the study, said the results could differ if researchers conducted the same survey today because the study was conducted before the new superior nicotine vaping devices that provide a closer experience to the experience of smoking became popular
Another important factor, said Dr. Eriksen, is that some smokers are confused as to whether vaping is more or less harmful than smoking and if that can help them stop. The confusion may stem in part from the lack of consensus in the scientific community on the risks and benefits of e-cigarettes.
"There is a lot of misinformation and confusion, and people are not guided," he said. . "They equate vaping and smoking and do not know how to use the product."
The most important, he said, is the high percentage of dual consumers. "19659003" Any amount of tobacco is harmful, and it's really not the benefits if they do not stop completely, "said Dr. Eriksen." We need to be a lot more consistent in our advice to smokers. on how to use these products and that they have to quit and avoid dual use. "
The" big glimmer of hope "is that the percentage of dual users who did Quitting smoking – just under 10% – is about double the average quit rate for American smokers.
David Abrams,
a professor from the World Public Health College of New York University, who wrote that e-cigarettes can be an important tool in the fight against smoking. At the same time, the percentage of smokers who quit without using electronic cigarettes was unusually high, he said. He did not participate in the study, which he said was "very well done".
"I do not see anything here that discourages smokers struggling so hard to stop smoking or move on until they find one that works," he said. he says.
Write to Betsy McKay at [email protected]
