A few days ago we presented here an investigation led by Professor Stanton Glantz and researchers from the University of California (United States). If the latter claims that daily use of the e-cigarette doubles the risk of heart attack, the Dr. Lion Shahab and Pr Peter Hajek, two seasoned experts denounce biased conclusions for their shares.
A STUDY WITH ERRONEOUS CONCLUSIONS!
Should we doubt the seriousness of this survey published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine on August 22? In any case, this is the idea of two renowned British scientists who wanted to react to the "buzz" generated by it.
First of all the Dr. Lion Shahab, associate professor of health psychology at University College London who says for his part:
« This interpretation of the conclusions of this article is seriously flawed for two main reasons. First, because this is a cross-sectional study, the analysis does not distinguish what happened first-the switch to double use of e-cigarettes or heart attack. Another likely explanation for these findings is that smokers who experience a cardiovascular event are more likely to reduce their cigarette consumption and try to quit, as reported in the text. One of the ways to reduce smoking is to use electronic cigarettes. Thus, rather than causing heart attacks, dual use may be the consequence. This type of study can not establish the sequence of events and should therefore be interpreted with caution.
Second, and equally problematic, is the fact that in observational studies like this, confusion can not be ruled out. It is well known that smoking increases the risk of cardiovascular events and that this is related to the duration of smoking and the intensity of smoking. The type of effect observed here for dual users should not be attributable to the use of the electronic cigarette, since most users of electronic cigarettes were past or current cigarette smokers. It is difficult to know how the use of short-term electronic cigarettes could have the same health effects as smoking cigarettes for ten years.
A more effective and appropriate way to determine whether the use of the electronic cigarette increases the risk of heart attack would be to track users of electronic cigarettes who have never smoked in the long run to establish the sequence of events and determine whether there is a risk independent of current or past smoking. Unfortunately, this has not been done here and the interpretation presented is clearly beyond what we can actually conclude from the results of the study. "
Peter Hajek , director of the tobacco addiction research unit at Queen Mary University in London also wished to react to the findings of this
investigation :
It is based on data showing that smokers who have had a myocardial infarction are more likely to pass the vape. This is first presented as an association between vaping and myocardial infarction - and then turned into "use of the e-cigarette is associated with an increased risk of myocardial infarction. "
Source : Sciencemediacentre.org
