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THE FIRST EVER clinical trial to compare e-cigarettes with nicotine patches has found that they’re both about as effective in helping people to quit smoking completely.
The study, published in The Lancet, found that both methods result in comparable success in quitting, with roughly similar proportions of smokers who used either method managing to stop smoking for six months after a 13 week course.
A team of researchers at The University of Auckland in New Zealand recruited 657 smokers to the trial through advertisements in local newspapers. Participants were all people who wanted to quit smoking and were divided into three groups with some receiving a supply of e-cigarettes, some using nicotine patches and others receiving placebo e-cigarettes, which contained no nicotine.
Results
At the end of the six-month study period, around one in twenty study participants had managed to completely stop smoking.
While the proportion of those who successfully quit was highest in the e-cigarettes group, the differences were not statistically significant, researchers said.
The results suggest that e-cigarettes are comparable to nicotine patches in helping people to quit for at least six months.
Among those who didn’t manage to quit after six months, cigarette consumption was markedly reduced in the e-cigarettes group, compared to the patches and placebo groups. Well over half of the participants in this group had reduced their daily consumption by at least half after six months, compared to just over two fifths of the patches group.
Recommendations
When asked whether they would recommend their allocated product to a friend one month after finishing the course, around 9 out of 10 participants in both the e-cigarettes and the placebo groups said they would, compared to just over half in the patches group; these proportions were little changed after six months.
The study is also the first to evaluate whether there are any adverse health effects associated with using e-cigarettes in a large group of people, and in a real life, rather than laboratory, situation.
Comparing the e-cigarettes users to the group who were using nicotine patches – whose clinical safety has already been established – the researchers found no difference in rates of occurrence of adverse health events overall, and no difference in serious adverse events.
This suggests that e-cigarettes are comparable to nicotine patches in terms of safety, although the authors cautioned that data from trials with much longer follow up periods will be needed to establish the long-term safety of e-cigarette use.
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So all the over 60 AstraZeneca recipients who already have less protection than Pfizer recipients now have to wait until next year as there must be a 6 month gap between doses. Very unfair as Pfizer recipients who have stronger protection will get the booster this winter. There was a 3 month gap between first and second doses of AstraZeneca.
@Caitlin Far: people over 60 with underlying conditions who had AZ have already started getting their boosters from Pfizer.
@Caitlin Far: very valid point.I got the Pfizer and in my opinion any one who got the Pfizer should not get the booster till next year.I think any one who got the Astra zenica should get the booster first
@Macca1986: I had two Pfizers originally and got my booster yesterday. Am in thirties but vulnerable.
@Macca1986: my parents with underlying conditions over 60 didn’t get it.
@Caitlin Far: AstraZeneca is a workhorse of a vaccine
@Macca1986: interesting how everyone is an expert.
@Mick Dunne: Well if you think thats the way to go then it must be so!!!
@Ger Murphy: It’s really sad that so many people have no one to talk to and have to come here to share their thoughts and opinions.
You’d think that they would also be giving booster shots to Frontline Healthcare workers as well?
@UnixBSD: Are they over 65, though? I thought they were calling vulnerable people first, and people over 65. Unless you have a low immune system, it’s not something they’re recommending.
Delighted. I’m 74.
I’m guessing the booster shots will have a disproportionately positive effect on hospital numbers relative to case numbers?
@Thomas O’ Donnell: They seem to be working wonders in Israel right now, not only for hospitalizations/deaths but for cases also. They were at 20k cases a day in September and are now down to 700.
@Thomas O’ Donnell: yes, just like the initial vaccines have massively reduced (not eliminated) the link between cases and hospitalisation. Just look at Eastern Europe for what happens with lower vaccine rates and Delta.
People don’t need to wait six months after their vaccine. Simply not true. I had my booster this week five months after. The leaflet said it had to be at least two months after their second vaccine and six months after a positive covid diagnosis.
@Mark Brown: got mine about 4 months after my 2nd one got the same leaflet…. Just wondering did u feel the 3rd one hit you more than the 1st 2 ?
@christopher dyas: Have been OK so far thankfully. Had shingles after my first one so will be hard to hit that bar again! Haha
It beggars belief that Covid19 is on a rampage of infecting people, yet our health authorities are doing almost everything in their power to slow down booster vaccines. Wtaf?
@JG: Give it a break, they have managed th vaccination problems better than most other countries including a hack. We were leading the most vaccinated countries in Europe for a good while.
I will have a go at the HSE when they mess up, they got the vaccination program right. Slow start built up system then power on.
Will the rest of the country get the booster after the over 60s.
@Mick Dunne: Yes Mick. It will be boosters for everyone, about every 6 to 12 months (probably 6 months for certain categories and 12 months for others), for the next few years or longer. Micheal Martin indicated this recently when he said he envisages it being a bit like an annual flu shot. When I mean everyone, I mean everyone who’ll take it.
@Mick Dunne: they currently don’t have enough doses for the rest of the country at present. Not unless they get more doses off the EU.
Why is Moderna not available for booster? It lasts longer than Pfizer!
Got the 3rd one hit me hard for 48hrs wasn’t sick but felt like a bad hangover which been honest I’ve lack of over the last 2 years
Recent data is now showing Sweeden have the lowest mortality rate in Europe, and they do not have mandatory vaccinations, mask wearing social distancing etc. For example Scotland recordered 10.9% excess death rate in 2020 V sweeden had 7% without any lockdowns. There were 64 school closures in 2020 in Scotland V none in sweeden. Qeight gain in Scotland was 54% while in sweeden it was 0%. Rise in alcohol elated deaths were 17% in Scotland V just 3% in Sweeden. There was a 24% increase in depression in Scotland V 6% in Sweeden. Current pandemic measures are mandatory mask wearing and vaccine passports in ireland with none of that at all in sweeden. SURELY SWEEDEN ARE THE WINNERS IN THIS PANDEMIC. Why can we not learn from their success.
Source: TraderNik1 Twitter.
@Tom Mc Phillips: Only if you ignore their neighbours …. Denmark 1.5%, Finland 1% and Norway 0% …… and what was there approach I wonder.
@Tom Mc Phillips: Sweden, the country that the prime minister apologised for getting it wrong. Where their CMO banked on Herd Immunity and it did not happen. Where almost 15,000 people passed away from Covid-19.
With a much lower population density than ours as well.
If they had followed the WHO rules they would be like Norway and Finland who both shut their borders to Sweden. . Norway and Finland got it.
We are being called the best in the world for the way we handled it with our land border with no checks to a country that got it all wrong.
The booster will roll out like the original vaccines did. Slow at first and then building up. A little slower as a lot of people will be getting one vaccine. All us AZ people for example.
Over 60s than vulnerable cohort and off we go.
have your say