E-cigarettes DO NOT help people quit smoking, study claims –

According to a controversial study, vaping doesn’t help teens quit smoking.

Researchers at the University of Michigan tracked smoking cessation success rates over time by analyzing two decades of research data from thousands of young people.

They say the percentage of teens who can’t break the habit is increasing in 2020, despite a declining trend since the late 1990s.

A separate analysis examining attempts to quit e-cigarettes found that failure rates were twice as high as with conventional cigarettes.

But experts say by pouring cold water on the “flawed” research, more solid evidence shows the devices are useful.

NHS watchdogs may soon approve e-cigarettes as smoking cessation aids, leading doctors to prescribe devices for smokers.

Unsuccessful attempts to quit smoking are considered important in studies of nicotine addiction, as they “show a loss of autonomy”.

The academics compared research data on the smoking habits of 800,000 American schoolchildren collected between 1997 and 2020.

They recorded whether the teens had ever smoked, whether they had tried to quit, and whether they had been successful in their attempts to quit.

While smoking cessation success rates have improved almost year-over-year over the past decade, 2020 has seen a comeback.

The failure rate increased from 1.3% the previous year to 2.2% in 2020.

Researchers who only looked at rates of e-cigarettes said that 4.1% of attempts were unsuccessful.

This was lower than successful quit rates for traditional cigarettes in each survey year since 2006.

Lead author Dr. Richard Miech said the results are significant given the vape’s growing popularity.

“The contribution of e-cigarettes to the failure of nicotine cessation attempts in adolescents is important,” he said.

But Dr. Miech added that the findings, published as a letter in JAMA, “must be considered as the United States formulates policies to regulate e-cigarettes.”

Under controversial plans by Health Minister Sajid Javid, the UK will be the first country in the world to prescribe vaping to discourage people from regular smoking.

But the jury isn’t sure if they’re helpful as a smoking cessation aid, and some research shows they’re no better than cold turkey.

Earlier this month, a University College London study found that for most teens and young adults, vaping is not a gateway to regular cigarette consumption.

Dr. Miech admitted that he has one year of vaping data and that his addiction, which reports on young people’s smoking habits, skews the results.

Independent UK experts said the study had a number of flaws that made the results questionable.

Professor Lion Shahab, a health psychologist at University College London, was one of them.

He said: “Unfortunately, this research is seriously flawed and tells us very little.”

He added that the comparison of attempts to quit smoking in previous years with those attempts to quit vaping in 2020 alone is an “apple and orange” comparison.

Professor Shahab also said that the authors did not take into account the gap in the 2020 data that could result from the Covid pandemic.

And he said the document’s implication that e-cigarettes don’t help reduce smokers is not supported by other studies.

“E-cigarettes play a clear role as part of a comprehensive smoking cessation strategy to achieve the goal of not smoking,” he said.

Professor John Britton, an epidemiologist at the University of Nottingham, said that an increase in the number of people who do not quit smoking may actually be good.

“Maybe even trying is just an increase in rate, which is a good thing,” he said.

Although they contain fewer chemicals than traditional cigarettes, e-cigarettes are not without risk and contain nicotine and various irritants that can harm the lungs.