891,000 Used E-cigarettes To Try And Quit Smoking In 2014, Study Suggests.

According to estimates, about 900,000 people used e-cigarettes to help them try and kick the habit in 2014. There is a new study that has found that 891,000 smokers used an e-cigarette in a bid to quit. They preferred this option opposed to the use of behavioral support or prescription medicine to help them quit.

According to researchers at the University College London, 37.3% of adult smokers in England tried to quit the habit in 2014. 28.2% of these smokers used an electronic cigarette to help them quit them quit the habit.

Some studies carried out before suggest that using e-cigarettes can increase the success rate by up to 50% compared with using either one or zero support of the traditional nicotine products like skin patches bought from a shop or gum.

The researchers found out that using the e-cigarettes increased the success rates from about 5% to about 7.5%. These studies have shown that about 22,000 smokers quit the habit as a result of e-cigarettes. The researchers believe that the smokers would not quit had they used a licensed nicotine product or nothing at all according to a study published in Addiction.

According to Professor Robert West who led the research team, the e-cigarettes seem to be helping many smokers who would not have stopped the smoking habit. Though the number of e-cigarette enthusiasts claiming this fact is not as high a substantial number of smokers benefit from using e-cigarettes.

He adds that there have been some public health researchers who claim that e-cigarettes may end up undermining quitting in case the smoker is using them to cut down as it may end up acting as a gateway to smoking. He said that the claims may result from not understanding what the evidence can tell us at this particular stage meaning that is something we need to watch very carefully.

E-cigarettes have the ability to reduce the morbidity related to smoking. Many smokers have been successful in switching from smoking to vaping according to Professor Peter Hajek who is the director of the Tobacco Dependence Research Unit at the Queen Mary University of London.

Specialist smoking cessation services are experiencing a decline in interest because they are currently not offering e-cigarettes. This is unfortunate since it is more likely that more smokers will switch to vaping in case if e-cigarettes would be combined with behavioural support. Professor Hajek concluded by saying that the best thing is that findings like this may encourage the services to start offering e-cigarettes as part of the overall tool kit.