The following guest article is written by Jeff Kohr. All opinions in guest posts are strictly those of the author. If you would like your opinions to be featured on this site, have a look here.
E-Cigarettes vs. Nicotine Patches
There’s good news for the vaping community. The first clinical trial comparing e-cigarettes with nicotine patches has determined that they are equal in helping tobacco smokers kick the habit. The study was published last month in the medical journal “The Lancet,” which is funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand. This is just the second controlled trial for e-cigarettes, and it’s the first to measure e-cigarettes versus the more established nicotine patches as a method of quitting tobacco.
The study’s key finding is crucial: there are similar proportions of smokers who remained abstinent from tobacco smoking for six months after using patches or e-cigarettes. And of those in the trial comparison, more participants said they would recommend the e-cigarette over the traditional patches as a solid method to quit smoking.
What this means to vaping industry is that we have another solid avenue to pursue in our quest to brand ourselves as a solid and healthy alternative to quitting the hazards of tobacco smoking. Now there are independent clinical results to back assertions. While this isn’t the ultimate good news, it’s still convincing evidence that e-cigarettes can be an effective tool in the battle to help tobacco smokers to quit traditional cigarettes in favor of a healthier alternative.
I know what I’m talking about— I founded Boosted Vapor as a way to quit my long-time smoking habit.
Study Measured 657 Smokers
The New Zealand study was led by an associate professor, Chris Bullen, director of the National Institute for Health Innovation at the University of Auckland. His team recruited 657 tobacco smokers for the trial. They broke down the participants into three groups:
(1) those who received 13 weeks of commercially available e-cigarettes with 16 mg of nicotine; (2) those who received 13 weeks of nicotine patches; and (3) a smaller group who received placebo e-cigarettes that had no nicotine.
After those 13 weeks and three months of follow-up, the reseachers tested participants to determine if they had abstained from tobacco. At the end of the period, about 5.7% had managed to remain tobacco smoke-free.
The best news is that the highest percentage of those who quit were in the e-cigarette group, although the quitters’ percentage differences (7.3% of e-cig versus 5.8 nicotine patches and 4.1% of the placebo group) were deemed statistically not significant.
But, but, but– nine out of ten of the e-cigarette users said they would recommend the product to a friend who’s trying to quit. Only half of the patches group said they would recommend their product.
The Right Direction
Bullen said that while the results weren’t definitive, “it certainly seems that e-cigarettes were more effective in helping smokers who didn’t quit to cut down.” He also said the e-cig patients were more enthusiastic than the patch crowd.
So there you have it. Obviously, much more needs to be done. But we’re encouraged that the good news about vapor cigarettes is getting out to both the tobacco smoking and non-smoking communities. Our industry is expected to reach close to $2 billion in business this year. With positive news like this, the sky’s the limit.
Jeff Kohr is the founder of BoostedVapor.com, an e-commerce online hub for vapor cigarettes that offers a variety of e-cigarette products and accessories. For more information, visit www.boostedvapor.com
