A new scientific review that encompassed 78 studies representing 22,052 participants concluded that vapes are a more successful quit smoking tool than traditional therapies like nicotine patches and gums.
Published in November of this year by the highly prestigious Cochrane Library, a British organisation formed to organise medical research findings to facilitate evidence-based choices about health interventions, the review found high certainty evidence that smokers are more likely to quit for at least six months using vapes, than using nicotine replacement therapies.
A press release by Cochrane stated that the new review “…Found the strongest evidence yet that e-cigarettes, also known as ‘vapes’, help people to quit smoking better than traditional nicotine replacement therapies, such as patches and chewing gums.”
An author of the review, Dr Jamie Hartmann-Boyce said that smokers are dissuaded from trying to quit cigarette smoking through vapes because of misunderstanding.
“Electronic cigarettes have generated a lot of misunderstanding in both the public health community and the popular press since their introduction over a decade ago. These misunderstandings discourage some people from using e-cigarettes as a stop smoking tool,” Dr Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, Associate Professor at the University of Oxford, Editor of the Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group, and an author of the new publication said in a press release by Cochrane.
“Fortunately, more and more evidence is emerging and provides further clarity. With support from Cancer Research UK, we search for new evidence every month as part of a living systematic review. We identify and combine the strongest evidence from the most reliable scientific studies currently available.”
“For the first time, this has given us high-certainty evidence that e-cigarettes are even more effective at helping people to quit smoking than traditional nicotine replacement therapies, like patches or gums,” Hartmann-Boyce said.
The review found that studies that compared nicotine-containing vapes to nicotine replacement treatment, rarely found any significant side effects. In the short-to-medium term (up to two years), vapes typically cause throat or mouth irritation, headache, cough, and feeling nauseous. However, these effects appeared to diminish over time, the review noted.
“E-cigarettes do not burn tobacco; and as such they do not expose users to the same complex mix of chemicals that cause diseases in people smoking conventional cigarettes,” Dr Nicola Lindson, University Research Lecturer at the University of Oxford, Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group’s Managing Editor, and author of the publication said.
Lindson added that vapes are not risk free, and shouldn’t be used by people who don’t smoke or aren’t at risk of smoking.
“However, evidence shows that nicotine e-cigarettes carry only a small fraction of the risk of smoking. In our review, we did not find evidence of substantial harms caused by nicotine containing electronic cigarettes when used to quit smoking,” Lindson said.
Michelle Mitchell, chief executive at Cancer Research UK, said that the new review is a welcome addition to a growing body of evidence showing that vapes are an effective smoking cessation tool.
“While the long term effects of vaping are still unknown, the harmful effects of smoking are indisputable – smoking causes around 55,000 cancer deaths in the UK every year. Cancer Research UK supports balanced evidence-based regulation on e-cigarettes from UK governments which maximises their potential to help people stop smoking, whilst minimising the risk of uptake among others,” the Cancer Research UK chief executive said.
