Cochrane Updates
Jamie Hartmann-Boyce and Nicola Lindson have spoken about the latest emerging evidence in vape research and discussed Monserrat Conde’s recent work
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by Dave Cross
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As part of the Cochrane living systematic review, the leading body of work looking at vaping and smoking cessation, Associate Professor Jamie Hartmann-Boyce and Associate Professor Nicola Lindson discussed the new research evidence and interviewed Dr Monserrat Conde from the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford.
The Cochrane living systematic review aims to assess the evidence for a relationship between the use of e-cigarettes /vapes and subsequent smoking in young people under 30, and whether this differs by demographic characteristics.
Cochrane says: “There is very low certainty evidence suggesting that e-cigarette use and availability are inversely associated with smoking in young people (i.e. as e-cigarettes become more available and/or are used more widely, youth smoking rates go down or, conversely, as e-cigarettes are restricted, youth smoking rates go up).
“At an individual level, people who vape appear to be more likely to go on to smoke than people who do not vape; however, it is unclear if these behaviours are causally linked. Monserrat discusses the differences in the information coming from the population studies compared to the individual level studies and notes that most studies are from high income countries, in particular from the US.”
As part of the review, Cochrane produces a monthly podcast. In the March edition, Hartmann-Boyce and Lindson inform that the latest update features a single new study (Comparison of Cardiopulmonary Effects of Cigarettes and E-Cigarettes) and a new ongoing study (The effect of Nicotine Vaping Products vs Varenicline on Smoking Cessation).
Nicola Lindson said: “The only new included study we found this week is eligible for our review of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation, so it is an abstract from the 2024 annual meeting of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence and was led by Brian Katz at the University of Vermont, it is a study comparing cardiopulmonary effects of cigarettes and E cigarettes in individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which is most commonly known as COPD. 21 individuals at least 40 years old were randomly assigned to all smoke as normal during one phase and to use nicotine E cigarettes in another but in a different order to one another and each phase lasted 2 weeks. Diastolic blood pressure was the only cardiac measure that significantly changed across phases and was statistically significantly lower after the e-cigarette phase than after the cigarette phase and that study was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and Food and Drug Administration. We found one ongoing study related to the e-cigarette for smoking cessation review. It's a trial registry entry and called the ‘Puff versus pill break the habit study’. It plans to look at the effect of nicotine vaping products versus varenicline on smoking cessation among people experiencing social disadvantage and it's being run by Ryan Courtney at the University of New South Wales aims to recruit 872 participants and is funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council.”
Jamie Hartmann-Boyce said the studies were “super exciting”, adding, “I'm so glad we're getting another nicotine e-cigarettes versus varenicline study. We know we need those. So moving on to the new ongoing studies that we identified that will be eligible for our interventions for quitting vaping review the first of those is a clinicaltrials.gov study record investigating a combination of nicotine gum and nicotine mouth spray compared to nicotine reduction for vaping cessation. The studies being conducted at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, they aim to recruit over 700 people who vape, and they estimate the study will be completed in 2027. So unfortunately, we have a little while to wait. Their primary outcome is being vape and tobacco free at six months, and the study funding wasn't immediately obvious from the trial record.”
You can listen to the full Let's talk e-cigarettes Podcast here.
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Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
