UKECRF Briefing
The UK Electronic Cigarette Research Forum has released its latest update of the Electronic Cigarette Research Briefing, providing an overview of current ecig evidence
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by Dave Cross
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The UK Electronic Cigarette Research Forum (UKECRF) has released its latest update of the Electronic Cigarette Research Briefing, providing an overview of current ecig evidence. The briefing is part of a series of quarterly updates intended for researchers, policy makers, health professionals and others who may not have time to keep up to date with new findings and would like to access a summary that goes beyond the study abstract.
The group does not focus on every vape-related study, rather they focus on high profile studies relevant to the key themes identified by the UKECRF:
- Efficacy
- Safety
- Smoking cessation
- Population level impact
- Marketing
This quarter, we cover a range of methods (a lab study, a mixed-methods exploration embedded in a randomized controlled trial, and three studies using data from representative surveys), participants (youth, adults, and young adults, including people who do and do not smoke), and research questions. It is encouraging to see such a broad range of approaches to research in this space.
Simovic et al: Young users of electronic cigarettes exhibit reduced cardiorespiratory fitness
UKECRF says: “Simovic et al conducted a cross-sectional study comparing young adults aged 21-27 who had regularly vaped for at least two years (n=26) to matched controls who had never vaped (n=16) and found reduced cardiorespiratory fitness in the group who vaped.
“This study cannot establish causality, and was relatively small, but does pave the way for further research. Investigating these questions in people without histories of smoking is likely to provide the most useful data on vaping versus non-vaping, but these results should not be extrapolated to adults vaping to quit smoking.”
UKECRF explains: “Ward et al present a mixed-methods embedded analysis from the COSTED trial, which tested an opportunistic smoking cessation intervention using e-cigarettes in emergency departments in England and Scotland. They provide useful detail on patterns of vaping, smoking, and dual use in their cohort. The analysis found that 13% of respondents stopped smoking within the first month of the trial; of these, 58% reported vaping in the past seven days at six months.
“Almost 20% of participants were classed as ‘delayed quitters’ – including those who gradually reduced smoking with a period of dual smoking and vaping leading to ultimate smoking cessation, and those who delayed trying an e-cigarette but, once they did, stopped smoking soon after; in this group, 65% reported vaping in the past seven days at six months.
“A quarter of respondents didn’t quit but did reduce their smoking by at least 50%; approximately half of these reported vaping in the past seven days at six-month follow-up. Among the remaining 40% who hadn’t reduced smoking at all, only 45% had vaped in the last seven days at six months. These data suggest important variations in dual use trajectories and show six-month vaping levels were highest in those who had reduced or quit smoking.”
UKECRF says: “Koops et al examined, via longitudinal ITC surveys, whether perceived vaping addiction predicts subsequent vaping cessation. In the 574 adults who completed both surveys, perceived level of addiction was negatively associated with having made an attempt to quit vaping, but this relationship was no longer statistically significant in the fully adjusted model. Among only those who had made a quit attempt, people who perceived themselves to be not at all addicted were more likely to have achieved quit success than those who perceived themselves as somewhat addicted.”
UKECRF elaborates: “Also using ITC data, Taylor et al evaluated awareness and use of short-fill e-liquids by 16-19-year-olds in England (n=4,224). Short-fill e-liquids are large bottles of e-liquid that contain no nicotine when purchased, but that intentionally aren’t filled to the top, so users can add their own nicotine ‘shots’ and/or flavours. Nearly a quarter (23%) of respondents were aware of short-fills, and of those who had vaped in the past 30 days, 22.1% had used a short-fill. Reasons cited for using short-fills included convenience, price, customisation, to get a nicotine concentration above the legal limit and to use them as a nicotine-free e-liquid. This data was collected in 2021; 2023 and 2024 ASH YouGov surveys don’t ask about short-fills, but in 2022 the survey found 26% of current vapers who used tank and/or nicotine devices reported using short-fills (described as ‘shake and vape’ products).”
Finally, UKECRF covers Jackson et al.’s work. “[It] used cross-sectional data from the STS in Great Britain to investigate patterns and perceptions of vaping among adults living in social housing. Vaping prevalence was approximately 30% higher in people living in social housing than people in other housing types.
“Among people who smoked, those living in social housing were less likely to perceive e-cigarettes as less harmful than smoking and more likely to perceive them as more harmful. Vaping for smoking cessation in people living in social housing is an ongoing and active area of research in the UK.
“The insights gleaned from these large, regularly conducted surveys are a strong reminder of the importance of this survey infrastructure for monitoring experiences, trends and outcomes related to tobacco use, which can in turn shape both research and policy and clinical guidelines.”
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.
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