According to a Rutgers study, many physicians wrongly assume that all tobacco products are equally dangerous, so they are less likely to offer e-cigarettes to people who want to quit smoking or who are being treated for a tobacco-related condition.
In the United States, some 480,000 individuals die each year as a result of tobacco use. Despite the fact that the FDA has not approved e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation device, many people approach their doctors about using them as a substitute for tobacco cigarettes or to help them quit. E-cigarettes work by heating a nicotine-laced liquid.
As evidence of e-cigarettes’ potential for smoking cessation grows, they may play a pivotal role in reducing cigarette use and, as a result, tobacco-caused disease, said study author Michael Steinberg, medical director of the Rutgers Tobacco Dependence Program at the Center for Tobacco Studies and division chief in the Department of Medicine at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. It’s “critical to comprehend physicians’ viewpoints on e-cigarettes as a harm-reduction tool.”
The study, which was published in JAMA Network Open, polled 2,058 U.S. doctors in 2018 and again in 2019 about their e-cigarette communication with patients. The researchers wanted to know how they would counsel two distinct patients who wanted to quit smoking: a young woman who was a light smoker who had never tried to quit, and an elderly man who smoked extensively and had tried to quit several times using various methods.
According to the study, physicians were considerably more likely to offer e-cigarettes to heavy smokers than FDA-approved treatments, such as nicotine gum or lozenges, to light smokers, according to the study. Patients have asked over 70% of physicians about e-cigarettes, with one-third saying they have been asked in the last 30 days. More than 60% of clinicians were mistaken in believing that all cigarette products were equally dangerous.
“These findings demonstrate the importance of correcting physicians’ misconceptions and educating them on the efficacy of e-cigarettes, particularly correcting their misconceptions that all tobacco products are equally harmful rather than the fact that combusted tobacco is by far the most dangerous,” said lead author Cristine Delnevo, director of the Rutgers Center for Tobacco Studies and professor of Health Behavior, Society, and Policy at Rutgers School of Public Health.
“As the evidence grows showing e-cigarettes as potentially effective for smoking cessation, they may play a pivotal role in reducing use of cigarettes and subsequently tobacco-caused disease,”
Michael Steinberg, medical director of the Rutgers Tobacco Dependence Program
The study also discovered that pulmonologists, cardiologists, and physicians who used the US Public Health Service Clinical Practice Guidelines for treating tobacco use and dependence, as well as those who endorsed a harm-reduction perspective and had smoked cigarettes themselves, were more likely to recommend e-cigarettes to patients. However, if a patient inquired about e-cigarettes first, doctors were more likely to recommend them.
According to Rutgers researchers, most people who use e-cigarettes want to quit, and many have tried to cut back on their use.
The study, which was published in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research, is the first to look at e-cigarette users’ previous attempts and current intents to stop in a representative sample of adult e-cigarette users in the US.
E-cigarettes are used by about ten million adults in the United States. The majority of these users also smoke traditional cigarettes, though many are using them to help them stop.
According to the report, more than 60% of e-cigarette users want to quit, with 16% planning to quit within the next month. In the last year, more than a quarter of smokers have attempted to quit using e-cigarettes.
The majority of the debate around e-cigarettes has been on their relative damage in comparison to traditional cigarettes, their effectiveness as a cessation device, and the worrisome rise in their use among children. In addition to these concerns, our research indicates that e-cigarette users do not intend to keep using these devices indefinitely. They eventually want to give up e-cigarettes in the same way that a traditional smoker wants to give up cigarettes. ” One of the study’s co-authors is Marc Steinberg, an associate professor of psychiatry at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and the director of the school’s Tobacco Research and Intervention Lab. He is one of the study’s co-authors.
Many of the strategies we recommend for quitting traditional cigarettes, such as FDA-approved nicotine replacement products or medications, counseling, and social support, are among the strategies people reported using to quit e-cigarettes, said study author Rachel Rosen, a graduate student in the Department of Psychology.
While e-cigarettes may cause less harm than traditional cigarettes, they are also potentially addictive, and the e-cigarette vapor still includes harmful compounds, she noted. “As e-cigarette use grows and more people desire to quit, it will be critical to be prepared to assist those who are having trouble quitting on their own.”
Michelle Jeong, Arjun Teotia, Michelle M. Bover Manderski, Binu Singh, Mary Hrywna, and Olivia A. Wackowski were among the study’s other Rutgers authors.
