Vaping Found Most Effective Method for Smoking Cessation, Study Shows

A major new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that e-cigarettes are significantly more effective than nicotine-replacement therapy for helping smokers quit the habit. Researchers at Queen Mary University of London tracked nearly 900 adults who were trying to stop smoking with support from NHS stop-smoking services across England. The results showed that 18% of those using vaping products were smoke-free after a year, compared with 9.9% of those using traditional nicotine patches or gum. The study is the first large-scale, real-world comparison of the two approaches under conditions that closely mirror how smokers actually use them.

Queen Mary University of London led the research, which was funded by Cancer Research UK, a leading charity dedicated to preventing and treating cancer. The findings add to growing evidence that vaping can be a valuable tool in tobacco harm reduction, especially when combined with behavioral support. Public Health England, now part of the UK Health Security Agency, has long maintained that vaping is around 95% less harmful than smoking cigarettes. This latest research reinforces that position and provides further support for policies that encourage smokers to switch to vaping under medical guidance.

Dr. Katie Myers Smith, a senior researcher at Queen Mary University of London and lead author of the study, said the results demonstrate that e-cigarettes can play a crucial role in smoking cessation. She emphasized that the study was conducted in real-world settings where participants received standard NHS stop-smoking support, making the findings particularly relevant to public health policy. “E-cigarettes were almost twice as effective as the traditional nicotine-replacement methods we tested,” she said. “This suggests that vaping can be a game-changer for people who have struggled to quit using other methods.”

The study comes at a time when smoking rates in the UK have stagnated, with around 6.6 million adults still smoking regularly. Meanwhile, vaping has become increasingly popular, with an estimated 4 million adults in England using e-cigarettes. Public health experts warn that while vaping is not risk-free, it remains a far safer alternative to smoking, which is responsible for nearly 75,000 deaths in England each year. The NHS has begun to incorporate vaping into its stop-smoking services, offering e-cigarettes as part of a broader strategy to reduce tobacco-related harm.

Critics of vaping, however, point to concerns about long-term health effects and the rising popularity of vaping among young people. While the study did not address youth vaping, it focused solely on adult smokers and their attempts to quit. The researchers stressed that their findings should not be interpreted as an endorsement of unrestricted vaping, particularly among non-smokers.

The UK government has not yet updated its official guidelines on vaping for smoking cessation, but the Department of Health and Social Care has signaled that it is reviewing the evidence. For now, health professionals continue to recommend combining vaping with behavioral support as part of a structured quit attempt.

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