A small study reevaluated if electronic cigarettes would really help cigarette smokers quit the habit.
Researchers looked a 949 smokers including 88 who also used e-cigarettes, Reuters reported. The team found the smokers who used e-cigarettes were no more likely to quit than those who did not.
While a "more rigorous" study would be required in order to make a solid ruling on the outcomes of use, it does call into question the problem of regulation. Some researchers worry the devices could act as a "gateway" for teens to start smoking tobacco.
A previous study suggested those who used e-cigarettes were generally doing so to replace tobacco.
"We did not find a relationship between using an e-cigarette and reducing cigarette consumption," Rachel Grana, the lead researcher on the new study, told Reuters.
When looking at the participants' behavior over a year they found those who used e-cigarettes at the beginning of the study were no more likely to have quit then those who did not. Using e-cigarettes also did not seem to have an effect on how many tobacco cigarettes the individual smoked per day.
The researchers said the small number of participants looked at in the study could have limited their ability to correctly find a link between e-cigarette use and quitting tobacco. The researchers also did not gather certain information such as how long e-cigarettes had been used for and what the participants' reasons were for picking them up in the first place.
By comparing smokers and e-cigarette smokers the researchers assumed "that the groups are exactly equivalent in terms of their motivations and their levels of addiction to cigarettes. You can't make those assumptions. You're not dealing with comparable groups," Michael Siegel of Boston University School of Public Health, who was not involved with the study, told Reuters.
