Are smokers who take up vaping less likely to relapse?

By Stephen Beech

Smokers who take up vaping to help them quit the habit are less likely to relapse, according to new research.

Vapers are 25% less likely to start smoking again, say scientists.

Smokers who stub out the habit with the help of e-cigarettes often continue vaping.

But, until now, it wasn't known whether vaping promotes or prevents relapse back to smoking.

The new study, led by Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) Professor Peter Hajek, provides the first evidence that smokers who successfully quit with the help of vapes and continue to use them may be reducing their risk of relapse.

Only a relatively small proportion of smokers who quit with the help of nicotine replacement therapies (NRT) - such as nicotine chewing gum and patches - continue to use NRT.

But smokers who quit with the help of e-cigarettes are much more likely to continue using vapes.

Hajek says that raises an important question of whether continuing use of vapes increases the risk of relapse back to smoking.

The research team conducted a secondary analysis of their landmark trial that included 886 smokers and showed that e-cigarettes are more effective in helping smokers quit than NRT.

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The researchers compared relapse rates in the two study arms, and in abstainers who did, and did not use e-cigarettes.

Relapse was calculated for the time periods between four weeks and one year, and between six months and one year.

Over both time periods, abstainers in the e-cigarette arm were less likely to relapse than abstainers in the NRT arm.

And abstainers who used e-cigarettes were less likely to relapse than abstainers who did not vape, according to the findings published in the journal Addiction.

Hajek, director of the health and lifestyle research unit at QMUL, said: “E-cigarettes use carries only a small fraction of risks of smoking.

"Among people who quit smoking with the help of vapes, on-going vaping prevents relapse.

"It would have a positive health impact and should not be discouraged’”

Hayden McRobbie, Professor of Population Health at QMUL, said: "A big question in helping people stay smokefree is how best to prevent relapse.

"For people who have quit smoking using e-cigarettes, carrying on vaping for as long as they need to feel confident they won’t slip back to smoking is likely to be beneficial."

Dr. Francesca Pesola, senior lecturer in statistics at QMUL, added: “We now want further studies to see whether this finding holds over a longer period of time.”