In an effort to identify ways to help young people quit vaping, researchers at Ohio State University launched a study.
They recruited more than 500 participants between the ages of 18 and 24, most of whom vaped every day, and offered them up to two quitline coaching calls.
The results came as a surprise, said study co-author Liz Klein: three months in, nearly half of the study’s participants had ditched the habit.
“That was a much higher rate of cessation than we had anticipated when we built this study,” Klein said.
Young adult vapers who also received nicotine replacement therapy, plus access to a mobile health program tended to be even more successful in quitting.
“But really, there were no statistically significant differences among our groups,” Klein said. “We think that the calls were really key in helping to support these young adults to quit vaping.”
Vaping as an ‘epidemic’
The U.S. Surgeon General declared e-cigarette use an epidemic in 2018.
“We know that tobacco-based products are the number one contributor to morbidity and mortality in this country. If we can help to disrupt that addiction process, we can really improve the health over the life course.”Liz Klein
"We have never seen use of any substance by America's young people rise this rapidly," Alex Azar, the then-secretary of health and human services, said in a briefing.
By 2021, one in five high schoolers in Ohio reported vaping.
Despite the high number, Klein says there’s not a lot of research into the best methods to help people who vape — rather than smoke cigarettes — quit.
“There's just a very limited amount of evidence, especially for exclusive vapors,” she said.
Given the impact tobacco use has on people’s health, she and her fellow researchers wanted to fill in the gaps.
“We know that tobacco-based products are the number one contributor to morbidity and mortality in this country,” she said. “If we can help to disrupt that addiction process, we can really improve the health over the life course.”
Quitting vaping
This study doesn’t show that quitting vaping is any easier than quitting traditional cigarettes, Klein said.
“We have every reason to think that nicotine is addictive in whatever form,” she said.
But it does show that vapers can benefit from some of the same resources as smokers, like quitlines, which are available in every state.
“Our takeaway here is that these evidence-based practices that have been demonstrated for traditional smokers are looking promising for exclusive vapers,” Klein said.
