Conducted with smokers who do not wish to quit smoking, this new study shows that the e-cigarette would curb the irrepressible desire to light one up.
E-CIGARETTE. Reducing tobacco consumption remains a key element in public health policies. However, despite the many measures taken to this end and the substitutes available, the results of this struggle remain limited.
In France, it is estimated that tobacco is still the cause of 73.000 deaths each year (200 per day!) And therefore remains the leading cause of preventable death. But the last two years have seen the emergence of electronic cigarettes as a new tool in the fight against smoking. Revolution for some, gateway to smoking for others, the e-cigarette leaves none of the players in this fight indifferent.
There are therefore many studies evaluating the value of electronic cigarettes in smoking cessation.
Conducted by researchers from the prestigious Belgian university KU Leuven, the most recent was published in the journal International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health and sought to evaluate the effectiveness of the electronic cigarette to eliminate the desire to smoke (the “craving” in English) and reduce tobacco consumption. For this, the survey focused on smokers who had no desire to quit smoking. 48 of them were included in this study, the scope of which remains de facto limited.
Three groups were randomly formed: two groups were allowed to vape and smoke while another only smoked during the first two months of the survey.
The e-cigarette would calm the urge to smoke
The first phase of the study, carried out in the laboratory for two months, showed that the use of e-cigarettes after 4 hours of abstinence reduced the urge to smoke as well as a cigarette would have done.
After this first phase, the group of smokers had access to electronic cigarettes. For 6 months, study participants reported their vaping and cigarette smoking habits online.
Result? Almost a quarter of these regular smokers cut their cigarette consumption in half after testing e-cigarettes for eight months.
In the end, in addition to the 23% who consumed half the cigarettes, 21% of them had completely quit smoking. Compared to all of the people studied, the number of cigarettes consumed fell by 60% per day.
Hugo Jalinière - sciencesetavenir.fr
