Does Where You Buy Matter?
Considering the efficacy of vapes as a smoking cessation tool, Dr Sharon Cox has investigated whether sourcing them from vape shops vs other sources makes them more effective
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by Dave Cross
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Considering the efficacy of vapes as a smoking cessation tool, Dr Sharon Cox has investigated whether sourcing them from vape shops vs other sources makes them more effective. The TLDR is that buying ecigs from vape shops might make for more successful quit smoking attempts, but more data are needed.
Dr Sharon Cox explained on Twitter/X: “Are e-cigs more effective depending on if they’re purchased in a specialist shop? There’s good reason to think they might be, but you could wonder if people who buy from a vape shop are different to those who buy elsewhere. Covid closures mean we can assess this.”
The research was conducted by Sharon Cox, Sarah Jackson, Jamie Brown, Loren Kock, and Lion Shahab. It was published in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research.
The authors of the study say they believed that the effectiveness of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation may differ by source of purchase.
“The changing influence of self-selection on purchase location caused by COVID-19 pandemic-related vape shop closures means we can examine the association between smoking abstinence e-cigarette use by purchase source and test for moderation of this association by the timing of the pandemic.”
Between 2017 and August-2023, the team looked at 284 participants over the age of 18yrs-old, of which 53.1% were male and 46.9% were women. All of these people had made an attempt to quit smoking in the previous twelve months and tried to do it through vaping in their most recent quit attempt. All of the subjects were currently vaping at the initiation of the research and the team collected data on where the subjects purchased their vapes and eliquids.
“The association between e-cigarette purchase source and continuous abstinence following the most recent quit attempt was assessed with adjusted regression, including an interaction between the timing of pandemic restrictions (March-2020 through January-2022).”
Results given as follows:
“Overall, 48.1% usually purchasing their e-cigarettes from vape shops, declining from 53.6% pre-pandemic to 40.6% during the pandemic.
“There was inconclusive evidence that those purchasing from vape shops had greater odds of quitting smoking (ORadj=1.25, 95%CI 0.92-1.76).
“The association between purchase source and successful quitting did not depend upon whether purchasing occurred before or during the pandemic (F=0.08, pinteraction=0.774; pre-pandemic: ORadj=1.23, 0.79-1.91; and pandemic: ORadj=1.29, 0.81-2.06).”
The research team concluded that more data are needed in order to arrive at a conclusive determination as to whether buying vapes from specialist shops increase the success of a smoking cessation attempt.
“Given the changing influence of self-selection on purchase location caused by the pandemic, the similar associations between purchase source and quit success across both periods suggests it is unlikely an artefact of unmeasured confounding,” they said.
The logic behind the proposition is that by visiting a vape store, a current smoker can obtain first hand advice from vaping experts on the best equipment to use, and the ideal eliquid strength/flavour, in order to help the smoker make a sustained quit attempt.
The authors added: “It is important to know if where e-cigarettes are purchased can increase their effectiveness for smoking cessation. While we found a positive association between purchasing from a specialist vape shop and abstinence rates, the results were inconclusive. Further studies are required to establish whether purchasing from specialist vape shops improves smoking cessation outcomes compared with other purchase sources.”
References:
- Effectiveness of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation by source of purchase in England: an observational study of different contexts before and after the COVID-19 pandemic – full report
Photo Credit:
Photo by Sierra Alpha Juliet on Unsplash
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.
