Paradigm Shift Needed In Pan America’s Approach to End Smoking
World No Tobacco Day serves as an important reminder of the harmful effects of cigarette smoking and the need for…
Beard, E. et al., ‘Association of prevalence of electronic cigarette use with smoking cessation and cigarette consumption in England: a time-series analysis between 2006 and 2017,’ Addiction, 2020, 115: 961– 974.
Key Points:
- There is a positive link between the number of people in England giving up smoking and the number of people using e-cigarettes to try and quit.
- The study examined the behaviour of more than 50,000 smokers over 10 years (2007-2017).
- Key findings:
- The use of e-cigarettes in quit attempts increased from 2011 onwards, so did the success rate of quitting.
- When the increase in the use of e-cigarettes flattened off somewhat around 2015, so did the increase in quit success.
- In 2017 around 50,700 to 69,930 smokers had stopped who would otherwise have continued smoking.
- “This study builds on population surveys and clinical trials that find e-cigarettes can help smokers to stop. England seems to have found a sensible balance between regulation and the promotion of e-cigarettes. Marketing is tightly controlled so we are seeing very little use of e-cigarettes by never-smokers of any age while millions of smokers are using them to try to stop smoking or to cut down the amount they smoke.”
