A new study from the Massachusetts General Hospital’s Tobacco Research and Treatment Center found evidence demonstrating that using e-cigarettes daily helps U.S. smokers quit smoking combustible cigarettes.
Using data from more than 8,000 adult smokers, the investigators measured how likely a smoker was to quit smoking and remain off combustible cigarettes, comparing daily and non-daily e-cigarette users with those who only smoked combustible cigarettes.
They found that smokers who used e-cigarettes every day, compared with e-cigarette nonusers, were more likely to quit combustible cigarettes within one year and to stay off them for at least another year. They also found that smokers who used e-cigarettes were no more likely to relapse back to smoking combustible cigarettes than smokers not using e-cigarettes.
“This finding suggests that smokers who use e-cigarettes to quit smoking need to use them regularly—every day—for these products to be most helpful,” said the study’s lead author, Sara Kalkhoran.