No association for nondaily e-cigarette use with prolonged regular cigarette smoking abstinence
FRIDAY, July 26, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Daily electronic-cigarette use is associated with increased odds of prolonged regular cigarette smoking abstinence, according to a study published online July 11 in Nicotine & Tobacco Research.
Sara Kalkhoran, M.D., from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and colleagues examined the correlation between e-cigarette use and subsequent cigarette smoking cessation using data from waves 1 to 3 of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study.
The researchers found that 3.6, 18, and 78 percent of wave 1 cigarette smokers were current daily e-cigarette users, current nondaily e-cigarette users, and reported no current e-cigarette use, respectively. Compared with nonuse of e-cigarettes, daily use at wave 1 correlated with increased odds of prolonged cigarette smoking abstinence (11 versus 6 percent; adjusted odds ratio, 1.77). There was also a correlation for current daily e-cigarette use at wave 1 with cigarette smoking abstinence separately at waves 2 and 3. There was no correlation for nondaily e-cigarette use with prolonged cigarette smoking abstinence or abstinence at either wave. Sixty-three percent of wave 1 current daily e-cigarette users who were abstinent from cigarette smoking at wave 3 were using e-cigarettes at wave 3.
“For a smoker, e-cigarettes are less harmful to their health than continuing to smoke cigarettes,” a coauthor said in a statement. “But e-cigarettes have become popular so quickly that many questions remain about how they can best be used to help smokers to quit and minimize any harm.”
Two authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical and medical technology industries.
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