Study Shows Vapes and Advice Double Quit Rate

• Emergency departments can be effective settings for stop smoking interventions
• Smokers who received advice plus a vape starter kit were twice as likely to quit
• Trustworthy communication from credible staff increased willingness to try vaping
• Over half of UK adults wrongly believe vaping is as harmful as smoking
• Providing evidence-based information could help more smokers quit

Stop smoking services are provided in a wide range of settings, from GP surgeries to military bases, community settings, and prisons. Success rates vary significantly between settings, and researchers are working to identify which settings and interventions are the most effective and why.

Several UK universities worked together to carry out a study to see if providing stop smoking support in an emergency department setting would be effective at helping people to quit smoking.

Participants were recruited from six emergency departments: Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, The Royal London Hospital, Leicester Royal Infirmary, Homerton University Hospital, The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and Addenbrooke’s Hospital. 972 people were recruited to the study.

Smokers who attended an emergency department were randomly assigned to one of the two groups. Group 1 was given stop smoking advice, including the offer of a vape ‘starter pack’, and referral to local stop smoking services. The advice was given by a dedicated, trained smoking cessation advisor based in the Emergency Department. Group 2 was given information about locally available stop smoking services.

Six months later, if people in either group said they had successfully quit smoking, their smoking status was confirmed using a carbon monoxide test.

Of the 972 participants, the study found that about twice as many people had successfully quit smoking after receiving the vape kit and stop smoking advice in the emergency department compared to those who were simply referred to stop smoking services.

According to the researchers, feedback from study participants was that they welcomed the distraction of talking to a stop smoking advisor while they were waiting to be seen in the emergency department.  

They also said that being given the vape by someone in the setting of a medical environment gave them confidence to give it a try.

One of the key findings of the study was:

“Providing encouragement and information on switching to vaping, from a credible source within a healthcare setting, [was] perceived as enhancing ‘psychological capability’ (furthering knowledge and enabling decision-making).”

If smokers get clear guidance from a person they perceive to be credible or trustworthy, it makes them more likely to be willing to try to use vapes to quit smoking.

Recent research by University College London indicates that the take-up of vaping in the UK has stalled. One of the reasons behind this slowdown in smokers switching to vapes is that there is a lack of clear, impartial information about vapes available to nicotine users.

The restrictions on the type of information that can be communicated about vapes mean that it is virtually impossible to highlight any potential benefits to smokers of switching from cigarettes to vapes. 56% of UK adults now wrongly believe that vaping is as harmful as smoking.

If we know that people are more likely to try vaping to help them quit smoking if they receive information they can trust from a credible source, then we need to enable this to happen. We don’t need advertising or marketing; we need to make accurate, impartial information freely available to those who could benefit from it.

The Emergency Department study highlights the bigger opportunity we have in the UK. By enabling trustworthy communication about vaping, more smokers will be willing to try to quit using vapes and more lives can be saved.