Survey finds 13% of smokers in Hawaii have used e-cigarettes to quit smoking

[Bill Godshall]

Survey finds 13% of smokers in Hawaii have used e-cigarettes to quit smoking, but abstract doesn't reveal the percentage of smokers have used e-cigs for reasons other than quitting.
http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2013.301453

Perhaps the most important finding in the study is that smokers who have used e-cigs to quit smoking were 3.7 times more likely (than smokers who didn't use e-cigs to quit) to have previously used FDA approved smoking cessation products (that obviously failed for them).

Smokers Who Try E-Cigarettes to Quit Smoking: Findings From a Multethnic Study in Hawaii

Abstract

Objectives. We characterized smokers who are likely to use electronic or “e-”cigarettes to quit smoking.

Methods. We obtained cross-sectional data in 2010–2012 from 1567 adult daily smokers in Hawaii using a paper-and-pencil survey. Analyses were conducted using logistic regression.

Results. Of the participants, 13% reported having ever used e-cigarettes to quit smoking. Smokers who had used them reported higher motivation to quit, higher quitting self-efficacy, and longer recent quit duration than did other smokers. Age (odds ratio [OR] = 0.98; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.97, 0.99) and Native Hawaiian ethnicity (OR = 0.68; 95% CI = 0.45, 0.99) were inversely associated with increased likelihood of ever using e-cigarettes for cessation. Other significant correlates were higher motivation to quit (OR = 1.14; 95% CI = 1.08, 1.21), quitting self-efficacy (OR = 1.18; 95% CI = 1.06, 1.36), and ever using US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)–approved cessation aids such as nicotine gum (OR = 3.72; 95% CI = 2.67, 5.19).

Conclusions. Smokers who try e-cigarettes to quit smoking appear to be serious about wanting to quit. Despite lack of evidence regarding efficacy, smokers treat e-cigarettes as valid alternatives to FDA-approved cessation aids. Research is needed to test the safety and efficacy of e-cigarettes as cessation aids. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print July 18, 2013: e1-e6. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2013.301453)

If anyone has/gets a full text copy of this article, please send to me at smokefree@compuserve.com

 

[DC2]

It looks like Hawaii is approaching critical mass, and may soon be the first place that gets inundated by the electronic cigarette tidal wave.
And from there the wave should propagate rapidly in all directions as it rolls steadily towards the smoking world.

 

[AgentAnia]

It looks like Hawaii is approaching critical mass, and may soon be the first place that gets inundated by the electronic cigarette tidal wave.
And from there the wave should propagate rapidly in all directions as it rolls steadily towards the smoking world.

"The e-cig tsumani"... Phrase has a nice easy-on-the-tongue ring to it, doesn't it?!

 

[NorthOfAtlanta]

We can only hope that the ANTZ and their alphabet soup groups think that the beach is getting larger and get caught in the wave.

 

[Bill Godshall]

The full text of this study states that this survey was conducted between January 2010 and August 2012, so most were surveyed in 2010 or 2011.
The survey was also conducted among folks who answered a newspaper ad, but the authors never revealed what the newspaper ad actually said.

While the survey found that 13% of smokers have used e-cigarettes to quit, they never bothered to inquire if any of the smokers had ever used an e-cig for any other reason than quitting (e.g. as an alternative to cigarettes).

The survey also found that the 13% of smokers (who used e-cigs to quit) were far more likely than other smokers to have previously tried using nicotine gum (3.7 times), patches (2.5 times), buproprion (2.3 times) and Chantix (2.9 times) to quit.

The last sentence of the study was most revealing of the authors' bias (as the article never mentioned anything else about e-cigarette regulations).

Thus, this study confirms the importance of promptly developing appropriate e-cigarette regulations that address smokers' use of e-cigarettes as smoking cessation products.

 

[rothenbj]

When does Stan Glantz issue a statement denouncing the science behind this study.

 

[Bill Godshall]

I wrote:

The survey also found that the 13% of smokers (who used e-cigs to quit) were far more likely than other smokers to have previously tried using nicotine gum (3.7 times), patches (2.5 times), buproprion (2.3 times) and Chantix (2.9 times) to quit.

Probably the single most important finding in this survey of 1,567 daily cigarette smokers in HI, which we should aggressively promote in future e-cigarette advocacy, was that many of the 13% of smokers who used e-cigs to quit had already unsuccessfully used FDA approved drugs to quit smoking (i.e. 45% nicotine patch, 44% gum, 13% verenicline/Chantix, 12% bupropion).

After smokers fail to quit smoking by using FDA approved drugs, it is irresponsible for anyone (including FDA, CDC, US Surgeon General, ACS, AHA, ALA, AMA, Legacy) to continue telling these smokers that they should only use FDA approved drugs, and that they should not try using e-cigs.

Even if FDA approved NRT is twice as effective as placebo (5% versus 2.5%), it is outragous to tell smokers to keep using drugs that have already failed for them, and especially to tell smokers that these drugs are the most/only effective way to quit smoking.

The only two published clinical studies (that I'm aware of) found that smokers who used skin patches for smoking cessation (after they had previously failed to quit by using skin patches) had a 0% and 1.4% success rate for quitting (by using patches a second time). The two studies are below.

Recycling with nicotine patches in smoking cessation; Tonnesen P, Norregaard J, Sawe U, Simonsen K; Addiction. 1993 Apr;88(4):533-9.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...ed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=8485431&query_hl=2

Double blind trial of repeated treatment with transdermal nicotine for relapsed smokers; Gourlay SG, Forbes Q, Marriner T, et al.; British Medical Journal, 1995, Vol. 311, No 7001 363-366.