“The conclusion that vaping ‘did not contribute to substantial smoking cessation at the population level’ does not follow from the data” – Prof Peter Hajek, Director of the Tobacco Dependence Research Unit, Queen Mary University of London.
It is just a little over a week since the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that vaping played a ‘major role’ in bringing the UK’s smoking rates down to an all-time low.
Now a new study published in Tobacco Control has been rubbished by a group of influential scientists for suggesting that vaping doesn’t help smokers quit.
The research sparked a Daily Mail headline ‘Vapes DON’T help people quit normal cigarettes, study finds’ which was published just seven days after it told readers: ‘How UK’s ditched cigs and turned to vaping’.
A record four million Brits now vape and this massive switch from cigarettes is credited by the ONS for being partly responsible for the UK’s smoking rates dropping to just 13.3% – the lowest recorded figure since records began.
But new research from George Washington University in the USA, looked at ‘dual-users’ – people who both smoke and vape, – analysed data from 2013 to 2019 and concluded: “Before 2019, ENDS (electronic nicotine delivery systems) use did not contribute to substantial smoking cessation at the population level.”
The study authors said their findings ‘suggest that smoking reduction could help dual users to quit using both products’ but critics said the research was flawed.
Good news
Dr Sarah Jackson, Principal Research Fellow, UCL Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group, University College London (UCL), said: “This study does not assess whether vaping helps smokers to quit.
“If we want to know whether vaping helps people to stop smoking, we need to look at differences in quit rates between smokers who vape and smokers who don’t vape.
“Other studies have done this, using observational and experimental study designs, and have shown that smokers who try to quit with an e-cigarette are more likely to be successful.”
Prof John Britton, Emeritus Professor of Epidemiology, University of Nottingham, said: “The design of this study selects people who find it hard to quit, or don’t want to. In that context the good news is that some at least manage it.
“What the study can’t tell us is whether more smokers who become dual users manage to quit than smokers who do not.
“So the message of this paper is that quitting is difficult, but that vaping may help you to achieve it. To say that vaping stops you quitting in the ‘real world’ is wrong.”
Misleading
Prof Peter Hajek, Director of the Tobacco Dependence Research Unit, Queen Mary University of London, said: “The conclusion that vaping ‘did not contribute to substantial smoking cessation at the population level’ does not follow from the data.
“The study excluded vapers who stopped smoking and only looked at those who did not manage this and became dual users. Despite this selection of those who did not benefit fully straight away, over 25% of dual users in fact did quit smoking later.
“There is a serious methodological problem in excluding smokers who switched completely to vaping, and only assessing the efficacy of vaping for smoking cessation on those who became dual users. It is like removing the best apples from a fertilised orchard, measuring what is left, and declaring that fertilisation had no effect.
“The press release by Tobacco Control is particularly misleading. It claims that dual use is harmful, when actually it is associated with reduced smoking and later quitting and so it is in fact beneficial. It also asserts that the study found that vaping doesn’t help smokers quit more easily, when the paper makes no such claim.”
Prof Robert West, Professor Emeritus of Health Psychology at UCL, said: “This study cannot address the issue of whether vaping e-cigarettes helps or hinders smoking cessation at a population level, however tentatively such a conclusion may be phrased – so it is surprising to see such a claim being made by a serious scientific journal.
Mixed messaging
“Well-conducted population-level studies have found that people who use e-cigarettes when trying to quit smoking are more likely to succeed, and that increased use of e-cigarettes over time in the population has been associated with an increase in cessation rates.
“This confirms the very strong evidence from randomised trials where smokers are randomly allocated to receive e-cigarettes or products such as nicotine patches, gum and lozenges; these studies clearly show e-cigarettes to be superior.
“The claim in the press release that the data show that using e-cigarettes may not aid cessation in population samples is particularly surprising given that daily users of e-cigarettes at the start of the study were more likely to quit smoking within the next two years than non-daily users. This is in the opposite direction of what they appear to be claiming.”
UKVIA Director General John Dunne said: “There is little wonder that smokers are confused when they are up against mixed messaging like this.
“I was at the recent E-Cigarette Summit in London when Rosanna O’Connor from the Office for Health Improvements and Disparities, told delegates they should ‘not always believe what they read in the red tops’ and I couldn’t agree more.
“It might seem comical when the same newspaper tells you how vaping is helping Britain quit smoking one day and saying the opposite the next, but there is a serious point to be made here.
“Misinformation about vaping stops smokers from switching and this, in turn, means that lives will continue to be needlessly lost to deadly cigarettes.
“When the ONS is confident enough to say that vaping played a ‘major role’ in bringing down smoking rates in the UK, we can be certain that this true.
“And if anyone really has any doubt whether vaping actually does help people quit cigarettes, then they can ask any one of the country’s four million vapers what they think!”
ENDS