The results of a study of 19000 E-Cigarette users

[Jake6731]

From Dr. Farsalinos:
The Worldwide Survey of More than 19,000 E-Cigarette Users, published today!
Heatlh benefits reported!
IJERPH | Free Full-Text | Characteristics, Perceived Side Effects and Benefits of Electronic Cigarette Use: A Worldwide Survey of More than 19,000 Consumers

Some interesting FACTS in this study.

 

[2coils]

Very positive, reinforced what we already know. I am afraid the powers to be will just rip it up and toss it in the garbage as the do with anything pro e cig. Very sad, I hope we can at least share it with the masses via social media!

 

[Bob Chill]

Gov and media math on this topic: 88>19,000

Jokes aside, there will come a time when the data is so overwhelming that it can no longer be ignored or spun. We're not there yet but we will be. Will most likely be after whatever regs that come out are put into place. IMO- the ecig market will be ripe for deregulation over time if they go too far this year.

 

[Anjaffm]

there it is! Great find, thank you!
Loved the summary - now to read the downloaded study

 

[DrMA]

So I take it that over 80% of vapers successfully quit smoking, and the rest significantly reduced their tobacco use. Compare this to traditional NRT that has a dismal 5% success rate. Yes, the ANTZ have good reason to fear ecigs...

 

[Stosh]

The statistics are wholly contrary to what has been reported for non-smokers "getting hooked on evil nicotine". The number of non-smokers, less the number of former smokers, less the number that use 0% nicotine liquid, only leaves a statistically insignificant figure.

As already mentioned, 88 of the participants (0.5%) reported that they were not smokers at the time
of initiation of EC use. Interestingly, seven of them (8.0%) responded to the questions of the FTCD
and 11 more (12.5%) reported past attempts to quit smoking, suggesting that these were former smokers

 

[AndriaD]

So I take it that over 80% of vapers successfully quit smoking, and the rest significantly reduced their tobacco use. Compare this to traditional NRT that has a dismal 5% success rate. Yes, the ANTZ have good reason to fear ecigs...

Yes, and I personally had the experience of *asking* my doc for the Nicotrol inhaler, when it came out, because I'm already accustomed to receiving medicine from an inhaler, and I thought the use of it might be somewhat analogous to actual smoking -- and being told that he couldn't prescribe it to an asthmatic. I asked him, would it be worse for my lungs than smoking? He said no, but he couldn't legally prescribe it to an asthmatic. That's just asinine -- preventing the use of a stop-smoking aid, by the people who NEED IT MOST??? If they hadn't made that asinine rule, BP's NRT might be a lot more successful! But I couldn't get it, so carried on smoking for many more years -- until e-cigs, and I had the opportunity to self-medicate -- and QUIT SMOKING!

Andria

 

[Dayglow]

Good to see more "research" hitting the masses even if it is simply a compiled survey and surveys can be interpreted and utilized in many ways. Still presents a users reporting of success across countries.

 

[LaraC]

Yes, yes, yes! Thank you, Jake, for posting the link to Dr. Farsalinos et al's survey results.

There were soooo many interesting facts and figures based on the survey respondents' answers to the well designed questions. Yeah, I took the survey last year.

I also loved the extra little tidbits, as when Dr. Farsalinos wrote this (regarding the population of non-smoking teenagers) and cited the CDC's own survey.

There is currently no evidence of adoption of EC use by such a population, with the CDC reporting that only 0.5% of non-smoking adolescents had tried EC in the past 30 days [28].

28. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Notes from the field: Electronic cigarette use
among middle and high school students—United States, 2011–2012. MMWR Morb. Mortal. Wkly.
Rep. 2013, 62, 729–730.

I suppose most teens who are non-smokers in the first place aren't even interested in trying an e-cigarette. And, I'd be willing to bet that most of that tiny bunch of non-smoking kids who decided to try an e-cig, probably took one tentative puff and went, "ewwwwwww!!!"

Hey, cig-alikes may have an important role to play in protecting the children from themselves during their experimental years!

 

[DrMA]

Yes, and I personally had the experience of *asking* my doc for the Nicotrol inhaler, when it came out, because I'm already accustomed to receiving medicine from an inhaler, and I thought the use of it might be somewhat analogous to actual smoking -- and being told that he couldn't prescribe it to an asthmatic. I asked him, would it be worse for my lungs than smoking? He said no, but he couldn't legally prescribe it to an asthmatic. That's just asinine -- preventing the use of a stop-smoking aid, by the people who NEED IT MOST??? If they hadn't made that asinine rule, BP's NRT might be a lot more successful! But I couldn't get it, so carried on smoking for many more years -- until e-cigs, and I had the opportunity to self-medicate -- and QUIT SMOKING!

Andria

You haven't missed much on the Nicotrol inhaler. I have personally tried it and it was very much as ineffective as all other NRTs out there, perhaps even more so.

 

[Kent C]

Thanks Jake!

 

[Deeo]

Thanks for posting!

 

[Robdob]

Indeed, thank you for posting this. Take THAT Oz!

 

[Jeffk123]

I have been waiting for this, now if only the media would pick up this study, probably not though, unless they nitpick it apart to fit their agenda which as things have been going is very likely.

 

[kl34]

Thanks for posting this and thank you Dr. Farsalinos. This will reside in my Dropbox and I'm sure it will be very useful in my (all too frequent) contact with skeptics.

 

[Kent C]

Sent the link to Greg Gutfeld.... and Rush and Jacob Sullum at Reason mag....

 

[tommy2bad]

The results are good but we have to remember that this is a self selecting sample, large as it is. IIRC he recruited the vapers from online forum and facebook so as a random sample it's worthless. We should also realize that the results from NRT are equally worthless if they are from stop smoking centres, their samples are equally skewed by the selection method.
However it dose demonstrate that ecigs used in a sportive environment do have a high success rate. Far higher than other NRT used in similar supported quit attempts. Couple this with the higher than nrt results in the small sample NZ study and we have a clue as to how successful ecigs could be if adopted and encouraged.
The problem isn't the lack of evidence, we have plenty of evidence of ecigs success as a smoking replacement , plenty evidence of their relative safety and plenty evidence of no gateway danger. What is a problem is ideology and a general feeling that the problem is smoking behaviour. I don't think any evidence one way or the other will change minds that are closed to change.

 

[Kent C]

The results are good but we have to remember that this is a self selecting sample, large as it is. IIRC he recruited the vapers from online forum and facebook so as a random sample it's worthless. We should also realize that the results from NRT are equally worthless if they are from stop smoking centres, their samples are equally skewed by the selection method.
However it dose demonstrate that ecigs used in a sportive environment do have a high success rate. Far higher than other NRT used in similar supported quit attempts. Couple this with the higher than nrt results in the small sample NZ study and we have a clue as to how successful ecigs could be if adopted and encouraged.
The problem isn't the lack of evidence, we have plenty of evidence of ecigs success as a smoking replacement , plenty evidence of their relative safety and plenty evidence of no gateway danger. What is a problem is ideology and a general feeling that the problem is smoking behaviour. I don't think any evidence one way or the other will change minds that are closed to change.

The non-randomness is not a factor, in the same way that doing a study on gamblers wouldn't be - you wouldn't include people who didn't gamble 'just to be random'. It's a study about ecigarette users.

But you're right as to how studies are used by the media. Whatever bias the media has, it chooses the study to back that up. And now there's a study that shows, contrary what the other studies show, that ecigarettes are effective in stopping and reducing smoking. Something that someone can 'hold up against' contrary studies.

 

[Hiwatt Bob]

thanks for the link!

 

[Jake6731]

"Switching from cigarettes to e-cigarettes has significant health benefits"
A document that details the highlights of the survey has been posted, with comments from Dr. Farsalinos:
Switching from cigarettes to e-cigarettes has significant health benefits, according to a survey of more than 19,000 users