Study: Vaping Quit Rate Reaches 18%, Nearly Double NRT

According to Vapingpost, a recent study published in Addiction aimed to determine the effectiveness of nicotine gum in preventing relapse after smoking cessation. The study found that, compared with placebo, nicotine gum reduced the likelihood of lapsing by 55%.

The study, titled “Secondary analysis: Efficacy of nicotine gum in preventing smoking lapses among non-daily smokers facing temptation,” consisted of a randomized clinical trial comparing the effects of nicotine gum and placebo on smoking cessation among non-daily smokers.

The trial included a 6-week randomized, placebo-controlled clinical study of nicotine gum involving 255 adult ITS participants seeking help to quit smoking (131 received nicotine gum and 124 received placebo). Researchers examined the outcomes of temptation events with and without gum use.

Participants reported a total of 2,713 temptation events, of which 46.0% (1,248) resulted in smoking lapses. The compiled data showed that using nicotine gum reduced the odds of lapsing by 55% compared with placebo (OR=0.45, 0.22-0.94).

Meanwhile, a 2019 randomized trial conducted by Queen Mary University of London, supported by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the Health Technology Assessment Programme, and Cancer Research UK, showed that e-cigarettes were nearly twice as effective as other forms of NRT for smoking cessation.

Researchers tracked quit attempts by nearly 900 smokers. All adults attending NHS stop-smoking services were randomly assigned to two groups. One group received conventional nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), such as nicotine gum or patches, including whichever product combination they preferred, while the other group received e-cigarettes. In addition, both groups received behavioral support.

After one year, participants were assessed for smoking status, including biochemical verification to confirm that those claiming to have quit had actually done so. The study showed that after one year, the abstinence rate in the NRT group reached 9.9%, which was considered surprisingly high, as previous studies had found NRT quit rates of only 5-7%. However, the success rate in the e-cigarette group was nearly double that figure, with an abstinence rate of 18%.