A big pitch for vaping is that it helps people to quit smoking cigarettes. But researchers at The Ohio State University concluded that people who vape and smoke cigarettes are no more likely to drop the nicotine habit than those who just smoke.
Researchers sat down with participants every six months for 18 months to ask them about tobacco use, interest in quitting and quit attempts they’d made. They also documented what type of tobacco products the participants used.At the first check-in, six months into the study, the dual users were more likely to have stopped using tobacco, but that difference disappeared by the 1-year and 18-month interviews. By the end of the study, most dual users were back to smoking cigarettes exclusively.
“Providers get questions about trying e-cigarettes all the time from people who want to quit. Our paper would suggest that it’s not a promising approach,” said Mary Ellen Wewers, a member of Ohio State’s Center of Excellence in Tobacco Regulatory Science, “the majority don’t quit, and most of them go back to combustible products exclusively.”
