This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

E-cigarette use may decrease likelihood of smoking cessation

Patients who use e-cigarettes are less likely to quit than patients who smoke but do not use e-cigarettes, according to a recent study published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.

“As use patterns and product types continue to evolve, the association between e-cigarettes and cigarette quit rates may change,” Sara Kalkhoran, MD, and Stanton A. Glantz, PhD, both of the department of medicine at University of California, San Francisco wrote. “In the current regulatory environment, e-cigarette use is increasing and, although quitting smoking is a common marketing claim and is often cited as a reason for use among cigarette smokers, the overall conclusion from the available studies is that e-cigarette use is associated with reduced smoking cessation in the real world.”

Kalkhoran and Glantz performed a retrospective review of the Web of Science and PubMed databases between April 2015 and June 2015 and identified 38 studies that analyzed smokers who also used e-cigarettes, according to the abstract. They examined factors such as nicotine dependence, cigarette consumption, smoking cessation definition and odds of smoking cessation and performed a meta-analysis to determine the likelihood of smoking cessation among smokers using e-cigarettes.

The researchers found that patients who used e-cigarettes were 28% less likely to quit than smokers who did not use e-cigarettes (OR = 0.72; 95% CI, 0.57-0.91), according to the abstract. Kalkhoran and colleagues noted there was no significant association within studies of smokers who used e-cigarettes and quitting (OR = 0.63; 95% CI, 0.45-0.86) compared with studies involving smokers who did not smoke e-cigarettes but had an interest in smoking cessation (OR = 0.86; 95% CI, 0.60-1.23; P = .94). – by Jeff Craven

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.