Electronic Cigarettes May Hinder Smoking Cessation Efforts

FRIDAY, Jan. 15, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- E-cigarette use actually lowers smokers' chances that they'll quit tobacco by about 28 percent, according to an evidence review published online Jan. 14 in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.

Stanton Glantz, Ph.D., a professor with the University of California San Francisco's Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, and colleagues reviewed 38 studies assessing the association between e-cigarette use and smoking cessation among adult smokers. The researchers then combined the results of 20 studies that had control groups of smokers not using e-cigarettes, comparing them to smokers who also use e-cigarettes to see which group quit tobacco more often.

The team concluded that the odds of quitting smoking were 28 percent lower in smokers who used e-cigarettes compared to those who did not. The finding held up even after the researchers compensated for differences in study participants, the strength of smokers' nicotine dependence, the design of the studies, and definitions of e-cigarette use, Glantz told HealthDay.

"We found that e-cigarette use was associated with significantly less quitting," Glantz said. "E-cigarettes are being promoted as a means of quitting, but they're actually having the opposite effect."

Efforts by HealthDay to reach the American Vaping Association for comment on the study were unsuccessful.

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