Tackshs

TackSHS partner and WP9 Principal Investigator Giuseppe Gorini from the Italian Cancer Research & Prevention Institute (ISPO) has recently co-authored a study exploring electronic cigarette use as an aid to smoking cessation and compared abstinence rates for different quitting methods in a representative sample of the Italian population.

In the 2014–2015 PASSI survey, the ongoing Italian behavioural risk factor surveillance system, 6112 adults who smoked and made at least one quit attempt in the previous 12 months, were categorized into three groups according to the method used in their most recent quit attempt: e-cigarette only, no aid, other quitting methods (medications; programmes delivered in smoking cessation services; other unspecified methods). The primary outcome was self-reported abstinence for a period ≥ 6 months, adjusted for potential confounders.

One out of ten smokers who attempted to quit in 2014–2015 in Italy used e-cigarettes. E-cigarettes users were as likely to report abstinence as those using no aid, but they were less likely to report abstinence than users of established quitting methods. Further studies are needed to understand the relationship between e-cigarette types used to quit and abstinence rates.

Read the full article.

Photo by pixelblume, used under Flickr Creative Commons