E-cigarettes 'are as good as patches for smokers trying to quit', says landmark study of new technology

A study by the University of Auckland is the first to compare the two methods of quitting

Similar rates in side effects were noted between users of e-cigarettes and the patches



Electronic cigarettes are as effective as nicotine patches in getting smokers to quit, according to the first study to compare them.

Battery-operated E-cigarettes look like real cigarettes and turn nicotine into a vapour inhaled by the user.



There is little information about the possible side-effects of the nicotine but it is the tar and other toxins in cigarettes which are deadly, not the nicotine.

New study: E-cigarettes are just as likely to help smokers quit as nicotine patches according to new research

The study recruited 657 smokers who wanted to quit. Nearly 300 were given e-cigarettes while roughly the same number got nicotine patches.



Just over 70 were given placebo e-cigarettes without any nicotine. After six months, similar rates of smokers – 6 to 7 per cent – managed to quit after using either the nicotine-containing e-cigarettes or patches. Four per cent of smokers using the placebo quit.



Among smokers who hadn’t quit, nearly 60 per cent of those using e-cigarettes had cut down the number of cigarettes smoked by at least half, versus 41 per cent of those using nicotine patches.

Researchers at the National Institute for Health Innovation at the University of Auckland also found similar rates of side-effects in smokers who used the e-cigarettes and the patches.



Comparison: The study by Auckland University professors tested the efficacy of both e-cigarettes and patches

The most common side effect in all groups was breathing problems.

‘This research provides an important benchmark for e-cigarettes,’ said Chris Bullen, director of the National Institute for Health Innovation at the University of Auckland, the study’s lead author.

‘We have now shown they are about as effective as a standard nicotine replacement product.’

Popular: Smokers were big fans of the e-cigarettes with many saying they would recommend them to a friend who is trying to quit

Smokers were also much bigger fans of the e-cigarettes; nearly 90 percent of users said they would recommend them to a friend compared to just over half of people who got patches.

Peter Hajek, an anti-smoking expert at Queen Mary University of London, called it a ‘pioneering’ study and said health officials should seriously consider recommending e-cigarettes to smokers who want to quit or cut down.

‘E-cigarettes also have the potential to replace cigarettes as a consumer product, so their value is not just as a treatment,’ he said.

‘That could stop the tobacco-related disease and death epidemic if everyone switches to a safer way of nicotine delivery,’ he said.

He added that although more studies were needed on the long-term safety of e-cigarettes, there weren’t any imminent warning signs.

‘E-cigarettes may not be perfectly safe, but even if some currently unknown risk materializes, they are likely to be orders of magnitude safer than normal cigarettes,’ he said.