E-cigarettes help more tobacco smokers quit than traditional nicotine replacement

The review of studies published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews found high certainty evidence that e-cigarettes, which allow users to “vape” nicotine instead of smoke it, lead to better chances of quitting smoking than patches, gums, lozenges or other traditional NRT.

Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, assistant professor of health policy and promotion in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences, said, “In England, quite different from the rest of the world, e-cigarettes have been embraced by public health agencies as a tool to help people reduce the harm from smoking.”

Worldwide, smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and death, resulting in more than seven million deaths per year. Jamie, who conducted research at the University of Oxford in England before joining UMass Amherst earlier this year, said, “Most of the adults in the U.S. who smoke want to quit, but many find it really difficult to do so.