The University of Massachusetts Amherst quoted Cochrane's latest review as saying that nicotine e-cigarettes are more effective smoking cessation products than traditional nicotine replacement therapy (NRT).
The review found high-certainty evidence that e-cigarettes are more likely to quit smoking than using patches, gum, lozenges or other traditional non-nicotine smoking cessation agents.
Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, assistant professor of health policy and extension in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said: In stark contrast elsewhere, public health agencies have embraced e-cigarettes as a tool to help people reduce the harms of smoking."
“The majority of adults who smoke in the United States want to quit, but many find it difficult to do so,” said Hartman-Boice, who joined the University of Massachusetts Amherst earlier this year. Iss, who conducted research at the University of Oxford in the UK, is the review's senior author and Cochrane's editor. "We need to offer people a range of evidence-based options for quitting because some people will try many different methods of quitting before they find one that works for them."
The review included 88 studies with more than 27,235 participants, most of which were conducted in the United States, United Kingdom or Italy.
"We have very clear evidence that nicotine e-cigarettes are much less harmful than smoking, although not without risks," Hartmann-Boyce said. "Some people who have not had success with other smoking cessation aids in the past have found that E-cigarettes help them.”
According to the review, for every 100 people who use nicotine e-cigarettes to quit smoking, an estimated 8 to 10 will successfully quit smoking, compared with 6 in 100 people who use traditional nicotine e-cigarettes and 4 in 100 who try to quit smoking with no support or only Smoking cessation with behavioral support.
"Not everything is harmful or helpful," Hartmann-Boyce said. "Different things can have different effects on different people. There's evidence that nicotine e-cigarettes can help people quit smoking. Smokers should not use e-cigarettes."
Hartman-Boyce compared smoking and e-cigarette use to the treatment of opioid use disorder. "We don't prescribe methadone to people who are not addicted to opioids," she said. "But for people who are addicted to opioids, we recognize that methadone is a useful thing."
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved any e-cigarettes as a drug to help adults quit smoking. FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said: "While some e-cigarettes can help adult smokers completely stay away from or significantly reduce their use of more harmful combustion cigarettes, the law's public health standards balance this potential with the concerns of young people. There are known and significant risks associated with the attraction, absorption and use of these highly addictive products.”
