More than 50,000 people managed to quit smoking

November 27, 2019 1 Comment

in 2017 smokers polled in the UK who would otherwise kept smoking managed to quit thanks to vaping products according to a relatively new UK study published by the scientific journal Addiction.  This may simply be a case for parallel effect rather than correlation implying causation as the study found a positive link between the number of people giving up smoking and an increase in vaping rates.

This study from University College London and funded by Cancer Research UK is titled, “Association of prevalence of electronic cigarette use with smoking cessation and cigarette consumption in England: a time series analysis between 2006 and 2017,” found that as the use of vaping for smoking cessation purposes, increased from 2011 as did the success rates of smokers successfully quitting. 

Not surprising then when vaping rates took a dip around 2015, so did the increase in quitting success. The compiled data indicates that in 2017 between 50,000 and 70,000 smokers who would otherwise have kept on smoking, managed to quit thanks to vaping eLiquids. 

From the study abstract: “Overall quit rates increased by 0.054% (95%CI 0.032 to 0.076, p<0.001) and 0.050% (95%CI 0.031 to 0.069, p<0.001) respectively for every 1% increase in the prevalence of e‐cigarette use by smokers and e‐cigarette use during a quit attempt. Quit success rates increased by 0.060% (95%CI 0.043 to 0.078, p<0.001) for every 1% increase in the prevalence of e‐cigarette use during a quit attempt. No clear evidence was found for an association between e‐cigarette use and either prevalence of quit attempt (B=0.011 95%CI ‐0.046 to 0.069, p=0.698) or cigarette consumption (B=0.019 95%CI ‐0.043 to 0.082, p=0.542)” 

These researchers used data from the "Smoking Toolkit Study" which is a series of monthly cross-sectional household surveys from England, of individuals aged 16 and above that goes back to 2006. Senior Research Associate at UCL, and lead study author, Dr Emma Beard, said that given these findings, the UK seems to be taking the right approach towards vaping products.

“This study builds on population surveys and clinical trials that find e-cigarettes can help smokers to stop. England seems to have found a sensible balance between regulation and promotion of e-cigarettes. Marketing is tightly controlled so we are seeing very little use of e-cigarettes by never-smokers of any age while millions of smokers are using them to try to stop smoking or to cut down the amount they smoke.”

Cancer Research UK senior policy manager, George Butterworth, stated; “Research so far shows that vaping is less harmful than smoking tobacco and can help people to stop smoking, so it’s good that over 50,000 people managed to give up in 2017."

Once again there you have it, more solid evidence from a nice and rigorous study from across the pond about how you can use vaping to quit smoking! What do you think about this study? Is it another breath of fresh air after all the doom and gloom of vape bans? Or is it just another "well duh" moment in the history of science and vaping? 

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