January 2023 Podcast

This podcast is a companion to the electronic cigarettes Cochrane living systematic review and shares the evidence from the monthly searches. In the January 2023 episode Jamie Hartmann-Boyce interviews Professor Jonathan Foulds from the Center for Research on Tobacco & Health, Penn State College of Medicine. Professor Foulds discusses his randomised controlled study of the effect of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) or e-cigarettes on combustible cigarette abstinence in people who use combustible cigarettes with no plans to quit. Their study had 520 adult participants who were interested in reducing but had no plans to quit using combustible cigarettes. The participants received brief advice and were randomized to one of four 24-week conditions, receiving either an eGo-style ENDS paired with 0, 8, or 36 mg/ml nicotine liquid (double-blind) or a cigarette-shaped tube, as a cigarette substitute (CS). Self-reported daily cigarette consumption and exhaled carbon monoxide (CO) were measured at all study visits. At 24 weeks, significantly more participants in the 36 mg/ml condition (10.8%) than in the 0 mg/ml condition (0.8%) and the CS condition (3.1%) were abstinent. The abstinence rate in the 8 mg/ml condition was 4.6%. Their randomized trial found study that few participants quit combustible cigarettes in the short term. However, if participants continued to use an ENDS with cigarette-like nicotine delivery, a greater proportion of participants completely switched to ENDS, as compared with placebo or a cigarette substitute.

Jamie and Nicola also bring us up to date with the literature search conducted in January 2023. The searches identified 1 new ongoing study NCT05639790. We will include the studies we have found in future updates of the Cochrane review.

For more information on the study see the full paper DOI: 10.1093/ntr/ntab247

For more information on the full Cochrane review updated in November 2022 see: https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD010216.pub7/...

Or our webpage: https://www.cebm.ox.ac.uk/research/electronic-cigarettes-for-smoking-ces...

This podcast is supported by Cancer Research UK.