The electronic cigarette considered more effective than substitutes for quitting smoking. Our expert’s opinion

in collaboration with

Olivier Galera (Tobacco specialist)

Do you want to quit smoking but don’t know what to choose between e-cigarettes and nicotine substitutes? According to a new Cochrane study, led by an American scientist, public health researcher at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, nicotine substitutes (patches, gums, lozenges, etc.) are a little less effective than vaping.

Electronic cigarettes adopted as a replacement for tobacco

This Cochrane analysis, carried out by Professor Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, brings together 88 studies and 27,235 participants. Most of the studies analyzed took place in the United States, the United Kingdom or Italy.

The analysis revealed that:

• for every 100 people using nicotine e-cigarettes to quit smoking, eight out of 100 quit successfully;
• Only six out of 100 people using nicotine substitutes succeed;
• For people trying to quit without any help, only four out of 100 people succeed.

Vaping is significantly less harmful than smoking

Electronic cigarettes do not burn tobacco but heat liquids with nicotine and flavorings, allowing users to inhale a vapor therefore containing nicotine. With cigarettes, people who smoke are exposed to a complex mix of chemicals known to cause well-known diseases, such as cancer and other lung and cardiovascular conditions.

“Most adults in the United States who smoke want to quit, but many find this really difficult to do. We have very clear evidence that, although not without risk, nicotine e-cigarettes are significantly less harmful than smoking. Some people who have failed to quit smoking in the past with other methods have found that e-cigarettes have helped them” estimates the scientist.

She does not recommend that non-smokers vape. “Evidence shows that nicotine e-cigarettes can help people quit smoking, but people who don’t smoke should not use e-cigarettes.”

Nicotine substitutes little used and often poorly dosed

Questioned about these results, Dr Olivier Galera was skeptical, mainly on two points. Author of “Tobaccolibris: How to easily free yourself from tobacco, for yourself, for your loved ones, and…for the planet!” published by H Diffusion editions, it highlights the number of people managing to wean themselves off tobacco thanks to electronic cigarettes. “If we take the results in reverse, this means that 92% of smokers fail to quit with e-cigarettes and 94% with nicotine substitutes, these are pretty bad figures, seen from this angle. first notes the doctor. “It would be distressing to promote products that are ineffective in more than 90% of cases.”

Before specifying: “The main drawback of these studies is that nicotine substitutes are rarely taken in real life. Studies show that 86% of smokers do not use prescribed nicotine replacement products. Then, of the 14% who use them, around 1% use them correctly, that is to say with a sufficient dose“.

In summary, according to Olivier Galera, nicotine substitutes are either poorly used or not used. “When they are done correctly, we obtain between 58 and 74% of smokers who have stopped smoking after one year, which means that therapeutic education of the patient and the proper use of nicotine substitutes are two essential criteria for succeed in quitting smoking. These figures were obtained by the doctor following the implementation of a program called STEP, carried out on a small group of 48 patients, validated by the ARS Occitanie but which was not the subject of a publication. “Our results were, however, presented at the 2022 tobaccoology congress of the Société francophone de tabacologie. But even in other published studies, the success rate of nicotine substitutes is around 18% on average, well above beyond the 6% of this study” he concludes.