Introduction: This study aimed to: (i) provide up-to-date estimates of how changes in prevalence of e-cigarette use have been associated with changes in smoking cessation activities and use of licensed treatments among smokers in England; and (ii) explore any changes in these associations over time.
Methods: Data were aggregated quarterly on 67,548 past-year smokers between Q1-2007 and Q4-2022. Explanatory variables were prevalence of (i) current e-cigarette use among smokers and (ii) e-cigarette use during a quit attempt. Outcomes were rates of quit attempts and overall quits among past-year smokers, and the quit success rate and use of licensed treatments among those who made a quit attempt.
Results: The success rate of quit attempts increased by 0.040% (95%CI 0.019; 0.062) for every 1% increase in the prevalence of e-cigarette use during a quit attempt. No clear evidence was found for an association between current e-cigarette use and the quit attempt rate (Badj=0.008 [95%CI -0.045; 0.061]) or overall quit rate (Badj=0.063 [-0.031; 0.158]); or between use of e-cigarettes during a quit attempt and the overall quit rate (Badj=0.030 [-0.054; 0.114]), use of prescription medication (varenicline/bupropion/NRT: Badj=-0.036 [-0.175; 0.102]), or use of over-the-counter NRT (Badj=-0.052 [-0.120; 0.015]). There was no clear evidence this pattern of associations has changed substantially over time.
Conclusions: Changes in prevalence of e-cigarette use in England through to 2022 have been positively associated with the success rate of quit attempts but not clearly associated with the quit attempt rate, overall quit rate, or use of licensed smoking cessation treatments.
Implications: If the association between the increase in e-cigarette use and the quit success rate is causal, then the use of e-cigarettes in quit attempts has helped in the region of 30,000 to 50,000 additional smokers in England to successfully quit each year since they became popular in 2013, over and above the number who were quitting before the advent of e-cigarettes.
Keywords: e-cigarettes; population study; quit attempts; smoking cessation; time series analysis.
© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco.