With controversy being reported in the media about the ills of e-cigarettes, researchers aren’t sure either as to whether there exists a link between reduced cigarette consumption and e-cigarette use.
Despite the marketing of e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation tool, research published in the JAMA Medicine Journal revealed, “Statistics provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed slight decrease in smoking prevalence among US adults between 2008 and 2011. We do not know whether it can be attributed to increasing popularity of e-cigarettes. We need to closely monitor this trend over the next few years to understand effects of e-cigarettes on population level.”
In fact, another study conducted by JAMA pediatrics found a link between the use of e-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes and concluded that these e-cigarettes might lead to an increase in consumption of conventional cigarettes themselves.
In this study, which studied the habits of 949 smokers, it was also found that a number of these smokers were not likely to quit smoking despite the use of e-cigarettes. And although 13.5% of the smokers did quit, very few of these successful quitters used e-cigarettes.
What the study also found that younger women, people with less education as well as younger adults also used e-cigarettes regularly. Yet most of all, it was found that their desire to quit smoking wasn’t any better than that of non-smokers.
These participants were asked 4 questions:
- How many cigarettes are smoked each day
- How long is it until the person’s first cigarette of the day
- If and when they intend to quit smoking
- If they had used e-cigarettes over the past 30 days