New study identifies effective strategies to help people quit vaping

A new study, co-led by a University of Massachusetts Amherst researcher, set out to identify the most effective strategies for helping people quit vaping. The findings, published today in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, suggest that varenicline, a prescription medication often used to help people stop smoking, and text message-based interventions can help people quit. 

This is an area of research that is in its infancy, but is growing rapidly and organically from people who vape asking about help to quit vaping. We also know that people who use vaping as a way to transition away from smoking are often keen to know how they can safely transition away from vaping without relapsing to smoking, which is really important."

Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, senior author, assistant professor of health policy and management in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences and a Cochrane editor

Cochrane reviews have found "high certainty evidence" that e-cigarettes lead to better chances of quitting smoking than patches, gums, lozenges or other traditional nicotine replacement therapy.

Other individuals, particularly young people who have never smoked, begin vaping and may face health risks or develop a dependency on nicotine and wish to quit vaping.

In the quit-vaping review, the team of scientists, including co-lead authors Nicola Lindson and Ailsa Butler at the University of Oxford's Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, pinpointed nine relevant randomized studies involving more than 5,000 participants. The researchers aimed to evaluate and assess the effectiveness of tools that have been tested to help individuals quit vaping.

"The interventions tested are similar to those that we know work for helping people quit smoking," Hartmann-Boyce says. "We don't know, however, that they necessarily help people quit vaping, and that's why it's important that we have these trials."

The study found that programs designed to deliver support via text messages seem to be effective for young people aged 13 to 24. The prescription medication varenicline, commonly used to help people stop smoking, was potentially effective for adults trying to quit vaping. However, due to the limited number of studies, this evidence for both approaches was low certainty and, the researchers explain, needs to be investigated further. 

"With the results of our Cochrane review, healthcare professionals now have initial evidence for specific approaches they can recommend, particularly for younger people wanting to quit vaping," Butler says. "However, we urgently need more research to explore these and other approaches."

The text-message approach offers a mix of motivational content, as well as content around social norms and tips for ways to quit vaping. "I think it's clear that this approach helps young people," Hartmann-Boyce says. "The question is, is it going to help other populations?"

Hartmann-Boyce says more relevant studies are underway, and the issue will remain high priority with Cochrane. "This is a really early area of research," she says. "This is a living, systematic review, and we'll be searching for new evidence monthly and updating the review as it comes out, because we know that this research is evolving."