Adult Cigarette Smokers Not Planning To Quit More Likely To Discontinue After Vaping

Adult cigarette smokers who didn't have plans to quit are more likely to stop smoking after using e-cigarettes, a new study has found.

Studies about the effect of e-cigarettes mostly focus on cigarette smokers who are actually planning or considering quitting, the researchers of a new study, published Tuesday in the journal JAMA Network Open, noted. Often, those who aren't trying to quit aren't included in these studies, according to The Verge.

"A long-standing theory suggests that taking even a first step toward contemplating quitting smoking can have a positive impact on net cigarette cessation rates; thus, evaluation of factors associated with cigarette discontinuation among smokers not planning to quit is important to understanding the range of potential impacts of e-cigarette use on net cigarette cessation," the researchers wrote.

For their work, the researchers looked at whether e-cigarette use would lead to the discontinuation of cigarette smoking among adults who weren't planning to quit and who weren't using e-cigarettes.

To do this, they looked at data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) study, which collects self-reported information on "tobacco use, behaviors, attitudes and beliefs and health outcomes." Participants were evaluated through several interviews from October 2014 to November 2019.

Among the participants, about 1,600 said in the initial interviews that they weren't planning to quit smoking and weren't using e-cigarettes. However, 6% of them had already stopped smoking cigarettes by the time the next set of interviews were conducted, with those who were using e-cigarettes daily being more likely to be among this group of participants.

"(R)esults showed that those who subsequently used e-cigarettes every day experienced an 8-fold higher odds of cigarette discontinuation compared with those who did not use e-cigarettes at all," the researchers wrote. "Our findings here suggest that such smokers should be specifically considered when evaluating the risk-benefit potential of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation in the population."

Just last October, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made a "first-of-its-kind" move by authorizing the marketing of tobacco-flavored e-cigarette products from R.J. Reynolds Vapor Company. The agency had noted that the possible benefits to adults who may end up switching to the products from cigarettes outweigh the possible risks to young people.

However, the agency still clarified that "all tobacco products are harmful and addictive and those who do not use tobacco products should not start."