Dual use of cigarettes and vapes can help smokers quit in the long term
Smokers who use cigarettes and vapes at the same time are more likely to eventually quit smoking than those who only smoke tobacco, researchers have reported.
It follows a trial of 886 adult smokers in the UK over one year who were offered e-cigarettes or nicotine replacement products to help them quit smoking.
Assessing different patterns in stopping smoking, the team found that those who continued after their quit attempt but also used a vape were more likely to stop by four weeks than those who did not also vape.
They were also more likely to have quit after a year than those who did not vape after they tried to stop smoking.
Even if they did not manage to stop altogether, this group of dual users were far more likely to substantially reduce their smoking rate, the researchers at Queen Mary University of London reported.
And people who used e-cigarettes experienced lower urges to smoke than those using nicotine replacement therapy, the study published in Nicotine & Tobacco Research found.
Most e-cigarette users started on high nicotine strengths and moved to lower strengths over time, the researchers reported.
All participants were initially given tobacco-flavoured e-liquid, but this was unpopular and most quickly switched to other flavours such as fruit.
Those who stuck with tobacco flavour were less likely to remain smoke-free at one year, the team reported.
By one year, around one in ten people using e-cigarettes had shifted to nicotine-free e-liquids.
The findings suggest that clinicians advising smokers wanting to use e-cigarettes to help quit can reassure them that even if they are still smoking, it can help them cut down and it is linked to a higher chance of them successfully quitting later on, the researchers said.
Dr Francesca Pesola, lead author and senior lecturer in statistics at Queen Mary University, said: ‘The sooner smokers quit the better, but for those who find it difficult to stop smoking abruptly, vaping can help with doing it gradually over time.’
Professor Peter Hajek, co-author and director of the health and lifestyle research unit at Queen Mary, explained that smokers and clinicians sometimes believe that if smokers do not manage to stop smoking soon after starting vaping, they should stop using e-cigarettes to avoid dual use.
But he added: ‘These results show that dual use promotes genuine harm reduction and that it can be a useful step to stopping smoking altogether.’
Professor Caitlin Notley, professor of addiction sciences at the University of East Anglia, said the findings were important because they show that dual use is associated with achieving long term smoking abstinence 12 months later.
‘There has been legitimate concern that dual using may encourage people who smoke to continue smoking, but this study provides evidence for an alternative explanation – that dual using can help people to quit smoking.’
The results also supported existing and emergent evidence that flavours are an important part of the sensory experience of vaping that may help people to switch fully from tobacco smoking to vaping,’ she added.
The use of vapes has now overtaken smoking rates in Britain, it emerged last year.
Visit Pulse Reference for details on 140 symptoms, including easily searchable symptoms and categories, offering you a free platform to check symptoms and receive potential diagnoses during consultations.
