Experimenting with commercially available vapes could be important for some people’s success in giving up smoking, research has revealed.

The University of East Anglia (UEA) led a study that found that giving out free e-cigarette starter packs in hospital emergency departments to smokers helped one in four people quit.

The research has been published in the journal Addiction.

The trial took place across six UK hospitals. The research explored the different ways people transitioned from smoking to vaping after receiving the e-cigarette smoking cessation intervention.

More than half of the participants the research team managed to contact six months after their visit to the emergency department had quit or reduced smoking, and a third of those who quit smoking were also not vaping.

Emma Ward, lead author from UEA’s Norwich Medical School, said, “There is a school of thought that vapes should only be available on prescription.

“However, our findings suggest that over a third of quitters, who were given a vape to help them quit by a healthcare professional, went on to experiment with different devices bought from shops or online.

“Some people managed to quit smoking soon after being given the vape, while others used both cigarettes and vapes for a period, taking longer than a month to quit.

“Satisfaction with vaping was important for success with quitting smoking, but personal motivation and being in a supportive environment were also significant factors.”

The study

A total of 1,010 adult daily smokers were involved in the trial, with 505 receiving free vapes in A&E.

Only intervention participants who responded at a six-month follow-up were included in the analysis for this study, resulting in a survey sample of 366 participants.

A total of 24 participants took part in interviews as part of the trial evaluation and were selected to represent the demographics of the main study sample.

The authors said the research highlights the effectiveness of opportunistic e-cigarette interventions, demonstrating multiple quitting pathways and showing that different people benefit in various ways.

Emma added, “Some people quit smoking following the intervention without long-term e-cigarette use, while others benefited from longer-term use to avoid smoking relapse.

“Those less experienced with vaping may be particularly receptive to receiving opportunistic support in a medical setting.”

The findings support previous research conducted by Emma, which showed that accessing vapes via the NHS might not be appealing to everyone. Some individuals do not see e-cigarettes as treatments but more as consumer products that they can shop for themselves.

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