E-cigarettes do no good in helping people quit smoking, a latest research paper shows.
Researchers at the University of California conducted the study to find out the effectiveness of E-cigarettes in helping smokers quit the habit and whether it should be promoted as an alternative to smoking.. They examined the data of 949 smokers. They stated that 88 of the participants smoked E-cigarettes.
They also found that more number of women, younger adults and those with poor education background used E-cigarettes. The study findings showed that E-cigarette use at baseline did not help people quit smoking after one year. And it also did not change cigarette consumption a year later.
The study authors, however, stated that the small sample of E-cigarette smokers in their study might have restricted the study's chances of finding an association between e-cigarettes use and quitting smoking.
"Nonetheless, our data add to the current evidence that e-cigarettes may not increase rates of smoking cessation. Regulations should prohibit advertising claiming or suggesting that e-cigarettes are effective smoking cessation devices until claims are supported by scientific evidence," lead researcher Rachel A. Grana, Ph.D., M.P.H., and colleagues from the University of California, said in a press release.
"Unfortunately, the evidence on whether e-cigarettes help smokers to quit is contradictory and inconclusive. Grana and colleagues increase the weight of evidence indicating that e-cigarettes are not associated with higher rates of smoking cessation," Mitchell H. Katz, M.D., a deputy editor of 'JAMA Internal Medicine' in which the study was published, wrote in a related editor's note.
