E-cigarettes don't help smokers stay off cigarettes, study suggests  
   Cigarette smokers who quit smoking but substitute e-cigarettes, or other  
  tobacco product, are more likely to relapse, study finds  
    
    Date:  
        October 19, 2021  
    Source:  
        University of California - San Diego  
    Summary:  
        E-cigarette use did not help smokers quit and may make smokers  
        more likely to relapse, according to a new study.  
    
    
    
  FULL STORY  
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  The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have  
  suggested that smokers who are unable to quit smoking may benefit by  
  switching from smoking cigarettes to vaping e-cigarettes if they switch  
  completely and are able to avoid relapsing to cigarette smoking.  
    
    
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  However, there have been few studies on whether smokers are able to  
  transition to e-cigarettes -- battery-operated devices that heat a  
  liquid made of nicotine, flavorings and other chemicals to make an  
  aerosol that users inhale into their lungs -- without relapsing back to  
  cigarette smoking.  
    
  Published in the Oct. 19, 2021 online issue of JAMA Network Open,  
  an analysis by the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human  
  Longevity Science at University of California San Diego and UC San Diego  
  Moores Cancer Center reports that e-cigarette use -- even on a daily  
  basis -- did not help smokers successfully stay off cigarettes.  
    
  "Our findings suggest that individuals who quit smoking and switched to  
  e- cigarettes or other tobacco products actually increased their risk  
  of a relapse back to smoking over the next year by 8.5 percentage points  
  compared to those who quit using all tobacco products," said first author  
  John P. Pierce, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor at the Herbert Wertheim  
  School of Public Health and UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center.  
    
  "Quitting is the most important thing a smoker can do to improve their  
  health, but the evidence indicates that switching to e-cigarettes  
  made it less likely, not more likely, to stay off of cigarettes."  
  Researchers used data from the nationally representative Population  
  Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) longitudinal study, undertaken  
  by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the FDA Center for  
  Tobacco Products under contract with Westat. The team identified 13,604  
  smokers between in 2013 and 2015 who were followed over two sequential  
  annual surveys to explore changes in use of 12 tobacco products.  
    
    
    
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  At the first annual follow up, 9.4% of these established smokers had  
  quit. Now considered "former smokers," 62.9% of these individuals  
  remained tobacco free, while 37.1% had switched to another form of  
  tobacco use. Of these recent smokers who switched to another product,  
  22.8% used e-cigarettes, with 17.6% of switchers using e-cigarettes daily.  
    
  Recent former smokers who switched to e-cigarettes were more likely to be  
  non- Hispanic white, have higher incomes, have higher tobacco dependence  
  scores and view e-cigarettes as less harmful than traditional cigarettes.  
    
  "Our goal in this study was to assess whether recent former smokers who  
  had switched to e-cigarettes or another tobacco product were less likely  
  to relapse to cigarette smoking compared to those who remained tobacco  
  free," said senior author Karen Messer, Ph.D., professor and chief of the  
  Division of Biostatistics at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health.  
    
  At the second annual follow up, the authors compared the former smokers  
  who were tobacco free to those who had switched to e-cigarettes or other  
  tobacco products. Individuals who switched to any other form of tobacco  
  use, including e-cigarettes, were more likely to relapse compared to  
  former smokers who had quit all tobacco, by a total of 8.5 percentage  
  points.  
    
  Among recent former smokers who abstained from all tobacco products, 50%  
  were 12 or more months off cigarettes at the second follow up and were  
  considered to have successfully quit smoking; this compared to 41.5%  
  of recent former smokers who switched to any other form of tobacco use,  
  including e-cigarettes.  
    
  While individuals who switched were more likely to relapse to smoking,  
  they were also more likely to attempt to quit again and be off cigarettes  
  for at least three months at the second follow up. A further follow-up  
  survey is needed to identify whether this is evidence of a pattern of  
  chronic quitting and relapsing to cigarette smoking, or whether it is  
  part of progress toward successful quitting, said the researchers.  
    
  "This is the first study to take a deep look at whether switching to  
  a less harmful nicotine source can be maintained over time without  
  relapsing to cigarette smoking," said Pierce. "If switching to  
  e-cigarettes was a viable way to quit cigarette smoking, then those  
  who switched to e-cigarettes should have much lower relapse rates to  
  cigarette smoking. We found no evidence of this."  Co-authors include:  
  Ruifeng Chen, Sheila Kealey, Eric C. Leas, Martha M. White, Matthew  
  D. Stone, Sara B. McMenamin, Dennis R. Trinidad, David R. Strong and  
  Tarik Benmarhnia, all of UC San Diego.  
    
  This research was funded, in part, by the National Institutes of Health  
  (1R01CA234539) and the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program of the  
  University of California Office of the President (28IR-0066).  
    
  ==========================================================================  
  Story Source: Materials provided by  
  University_of_California_-_San_Diego. Original written by Yadira  
  Galindo. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.  
    
    
  ==========================================================================  
  Journal Reference:  
     1. John P. Pierce, Ruifeng Chen, Sheila Kealey, Eric C. Leas, Martha M.  
    
        White, Matthew D. Stone, Sara B. McMenamin, Dennis R. Trinidad,  
        David R.  
    
        Strong, Tarik Benmarhnia, Karen Messer. Incidence of Cigarette  
        Smoking Relapse Among Individuals Who Switched to e-Cigarettes  
        or Other Tobacco Products. JAMA Network Open, Oct. 19, 2021; DOI:  
        10.1001/ jamanetworkopen.2021.28810  
  ==========================================================================  
    
  Link to news story:  
  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/10/211019120109.htm  
    
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