There's much to unpack with this study, so here's a quick analysis:
Headlines are claiming that researchers found that vaping doesn't help people quit smoking, but is that a fair assessment of what researches REALLY found?
First, let's keep in mind that getting people to WANT to try a product is key to the success of that product, but per CDC only 55.1% try to quit each year, only 31% reported using "proven" cessation products (2015) and only 7.5% successfully quit using traditional methods.
In this study, researchers didn't even look at the quitting rates of ALL vapers who had smoked. They only looked at people who reported that they were still smoking while vaping (ie. "dual users") between in PATH Waves from 2014-2019.
So it's ridiculous for the headlines to SPIN this as reflecting overall cessation efficacy for vaping. The only subjects they followed were people who said they both vaped and smoked. They did NOT include people who had already switched completely from smoking to vaping.
For all we know, 6 of 10 people in the PATH Waves who tried vaping actually quit smoking completely and the researchers only looked at 4 of 10 who were unable to switch completely. That would change the public perception of the true efficacy of vaping, now wouldn't it?
Did researchers studying the efficacy of nicotine gum NOT take into consideration ALL of the subjects who quit successfully and base their conclusion of cessation efficacy solely on the eventual outcome of only those who failed to quit? Doubtful.
What these researchers ACTUALLY found is that most people who had ALREADY FAILED to quit with vaping were likely to not switch completely. They did NOT find that most people who smoke who try vaping failed to quit.
Significantly, they did find that while most of these folks who struggled with quitting went back to smoking and vaping rates declined between the PATH Waves 1-4, vaping started rebounding by the last Wave. This suggests that many people WANTED to give vaping another try.
Also significant is that they found even in this group of vapers who struggled the most with quitting smoking, of those who kept vaping regularly, 7.4% had quit smoking in earlier Waves and 11.2% had quit by the last Wave. That's a statistic that shouldn't be taken lightly!
Consider those low quit/attempt rates mentioned earlier with "approved" products. How many attempts using do you think people who struggle the most had to make before it worked? Do public health advocates say it means THOSE products are useless or do they say "Keep trying?"
Most adults who both smoke cigarettes and vape are likely to carry on smoking or continue dual use over the long term, suggests research published online in the journal Tobacco Control.
www.eurekalert.org
www.bbc.com
️ that will affect members of our panel this weekend, this week's CASAA Live show has been postponed until after the New Year. Watch for our tweet, because you won't want to miss this one!
