A new study reveals surprising success in helping young vapers quit, with nearly half achieving cessation through phone-based quitline coaching.
RT’s Three Key Takeaways:
- Quitline Coaching Shows High Success Rates: Nearly half of young adult vapers in the study quit within three months using phone-based quitline coaching, demonstrating its effectiveness in vaping cessation.
- Unexpectedly High Quit Rates: The success rate was higher than anticipated, making it difficult for researchers to determine which combination of interventions was most effective.
- Young Vapers Respond Positively to Phone Support: Contrary to expectations, most participants recommended quitline coaching, showing that phone-based support is a viable option for this demographic.
Quitline coaching over the phone helped almost half of young people who vape ditch the habit, according to a new study.
The finding provides evidence about vaping cessation, an area with limited research to date, says Liz Klein, PhD, MPH, a researcher at The Ohio State University College of Public Health and co-author of the study, which appears in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
“This study provides hope that young adult vapers want to quit and can be successful in breaking their addiction to nicotine,” Klein says in a release. “This is such an essential group for disruption of that behavior on or before they enter into more established adulthood.”
Study Design and Outcomes
The research included more than 500 participants recruited through social media, all of whom had to complete at least one of two coaching calls during the study. Most of the participants—almost 80%—vaped daily. Three months after joining the study, 45% of the 18- to 24-year-olds in the study were no longer vaping.
The research team would also like to know which intervention, or combination of interventions, works best. They designed the study to provide that information, randomly assigning participants to one of four options: phone-based quitline coaching alone; coaching plus mailed nicotine replacement therapy; coaching plus mHealth (a mobile intervention offering texts, links to videos, and other online education and support); or coaching, nicotine replacement, and mHealth support.
Unexpected Findings and Future Research
Because of the unexpectedly high success rate overall, researchers couldn’t tease out which intervention worked best. But their data left them confident that support through a quitline is a strong option for young people who vape and want to stop. They also suspect, based on their data, that nicotine replacement therapy sent to people who want to quit could increase the chances of successful cessation.
The researchers were taken aback by the high quit rates and surprised to learn that most of the study participants would recommend quitline calls, Klein says in a release. The team had hypothesized that younger people might not be eager to talk on the phone with coaches and might prefer text messages.
The Need for Effective Cessation Strategies
In 2016, the US Surgeon General declared e-cigarette use an epidemic due to a rapid increase in the habit among teens and young adults. While safer than cigarette smoking, vaping leads to nicotine addiction, potentially harms the developing brain, and can be a pathway to smoking combustible cigarettes, which are highly addictive and harmful.
In 2020, vaping rates were 18.9% among those 18 to 20 and 13.5% among those 21 to 24, and prior research showed that most—58%—were interested in quitting. To date, though, research into what works for these would-be quitters has been limited.
“We want to know how we can help young people not develop a lifelong addiction to nicotine, and how to make sure they’re not switching to cigarettes, which comes with such a high toll in terms of both death and disease,” Klein says in a release. “We are very excited to see that this cessation approach worked so well in this group. Next, we’d love to determine how to best facilitate quitting among young people who vape and smoke traditional cigarettes.”
The study was funded by the American Heart Association.
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