Study finds combination best way to quit smoking

Thousands of Kiwis could successfully quit smoking if they used e-cigarettes together with nicotine patches, new research suggests.

The University of Auckland study is the first to test the effectiveness and safety of using nicotine e-cigarettes in combination with the patches. Results showed smokers who used both products together were more likely to go without smoking for six months.

Lead investigator, associate professor Natalie Walker, said if the dual replacement method was promoted in New Zealand, it would support 15,000 to 36,000 more people to become smokefree. ‘‘That’s a lot of people whose lives could be changed for the better – along with the health of their families and communities – simply by promoting the combination treatment.’’

In New Zealand, around one in eight adults aged 15 years and over smoke tobacco every day. This compares with only 2.6 per cent of adult New Zealanders vaping every day.

Nicotine patches and other forms of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), such as gum and lozenges, are medically approved and help smokers quit by quelling their nicotine craving.

NRT roughly doubles a person’s chances of stopping smoking compared with a placebo, and using two forms together is more effective than using one.

However, nicotine e-cigarettes are not medicines. They are consumer products that offer a convenient way of replacing nicotine that would otherwise be obtained by smoking.

Walker said nicotine was what made people want cigarettes, but it was the tar and around 4000 other harmful chemicals in tobacco smoke that caused smoking-related illnesses.

‘‘It’s those other chemicals, not the nicotine, which kill up to two out of every three smokers,’’ Walker said.

In response to recent reports of lung illnesses and death linked to vaping, Walker maintained vaping was less harmful than smoking.

‘To the best of our knowledge no-one in New Zealand has died from vaping.’’

The study was published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.