The electronic cigarette would help both to quit smoking and to start, according to a new study.
- The electronic cigarette helps some smokers to quit smoking or reduce their consumption.
- According to one study, it is more of a smoking-related consumption than a substitute because people regularly switch from one to the other.
- For some people, it would even be a gateway to smoking.
Since the beginning of their marketing, at the beginning of the 2000s, electronic cigarettes have raised questions. Do they really allow smoking cessation? Are they dangerous for health? Can they drive people to smoke? New Zealand scientists have been working on this last question. In drug and Alcohol Reviewthey present their conclusions.
A study on tobacco and e-cigarette habits
“Globally, the use of vapes, or electronic cigarettes, is on the risethey specify in the preamble of their study. Although vaping is less harmful than smoking and can help smokers quit smoking, it is also possible that vaping can lead to smoking.To find out, the authors analyzed data from a large study of New Zealanders’ habits, conducted between 2018 and 2020. They found that the prevalence of smoking decreased over time, while that of vaping was increasing.”No difference was observed in the likelihood of transitioning from smoking to vaping or vice versa, indicating that either pathway was equally likely.”, they note. The data varies by year: in 2018, those who vaped were more likely to start smoking than those who smoked to start vaping, while in 2019 the opposite effect was found.
Electronic cigarette: it does not really help with smoking cessation
Andre Mason, the lead author of this study, believes that if the electronic cigarette was initially “hailed as a new tool to help people quit smoking, to date there is no consistent evidence”. With his team, they did not find any evidence to prove that vaping facilitated smoking cessation. “Instead, there are frequent transitions between smoking and vaping, he develops. (…) Contrary to some hopes, vaping emerged as a simple smoking-related behavior rather than a substitute for it that helps people quit smoking.”
How to explain the decline in smoking?
However, the study shows that there is a decline in tobacco consumption over the years. For the authors, it is not necessarily the consequence of the use of electronic cigarettes. “The decline may be due to other factors, such as marketing campaigns focusing on negative health effects and the increase in the purchase price of cigarettes.”, they say. “Additionally, and perhaps more worryingly, vaping seemed just as likely to increase cigarette smoking as to have a withdrawal effect.“, notes Andre Mason. For the researcher, it is necessary that new prevention policies be put in place, to ensure that the transition from cigarettes to vaping is more frequent than the reverse.
