Study Finds E-cigarette Use Hurts Quit Attempts
A recent study published in Nicotine and Tobacco Research evaluated e-cigarette use and quit attempts at 3 and 6 month follow ups. The researchers sampled 6,526 people from 187 primary care clinics in Ontario, Canada.
They found that, after three months, smokers who also used e-cigarettes were approximately 30% less likely to have successfully quit smoking compared to smokers who did not use e-cigarettes.
At the 6 month follow up, smokers who also used e-cigarettes were about 50% less likely to successfully quit than smokers who only used traditional cigarettes.
Further, e-cig users did not significantly reduce the number of cigarettes smoked per day. No difference was found between smokers who used e-cigs to quit and smokers who used e-cigs for other reasons.
Findings from this study are consistent with other similar research showing that dual users (traditional smokers who also use e-cigs) are less likely to quit.
