This Quitline Program Helped Nearly Half of Young Adults Stop Vaping
- Smoking rates in the U.S. are declining overall, but vaping remains more popular than ever, especially among young people.
- A new study found nearly half of young adults successfully quit vaping at 3 months with a quitline-based intervention.
- Overall, quit rates were higher than expected based on previous studies on smoking cessation among young adults, researchers say.
- The quitline intervention that included nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) seemed most promising for quitting vaping. This is the first randomized trial testing NRT for vaping cessation.
- Participants also reported satisfaction with coaching calls, which researchers say likely contributed to the higher-than-expected quit rates.
Quitlines are free telephone services for people who smoke and use tobacco that provide support to help them quit.
In the United States, more than 10 million people have reached out to a quitline to help them quit smoking, a promising intervention for successful smoking cessation, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)Trusted Source.
Research on the effectiveness of quitlines has grown in recent decades.
Now, a new study from the RVO Health Center for Wellbeing Research found that a quitline-based intervention successfully helped young adults quit vaping. E-cigarettes are the most commonly usedTrusted Source tobacco product among young people.
The research, funded by the American Heart AssociationTrusted Source, was published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine on December 11.
The quitline intervention used in this study provided all participants with some form of treatment. The intervention yielded higher-than-expected quit rates, with nearly half (45%) of participants abstinent after three months. It’s the first large randomized trial examining the impact of a quitline-based intervention with nicotine replacement therapy (NRT).
“These findings suggest that NRT is a promising intervention and needs further examination in future research trials,” said Katrina Vickerman, PhD, director of the Center for Wellbeing Research at RVO Health, a health information and services company that includes platforms like Healthline.
“We were excited to see the success of young adults in this study with overcoming their addiction to the high levels of nicotine that many vaping devices can deliver,” Vickerman said.
Quitlines are confidential services that offer guidance, counseling, and self-help resources, with some providing free medications like NRT.
They are available in every state in the U.S. and have the infrastructure to provide large-scale, effective, and cost-effective interventions for smoking cessation.
“[Quitlines] are effective in people who are motivated to quit smoking or vaping and simply need support to overcome the cravings of nicotine,” Chaux said.
Vickerman noted that young adults in the study seemed more aware of NRT and more open to using it than anticipated.
“In fact, 28% reported previous use of NRT before the start of the study, and a quarter of participants who were not provided NRT in the study sought out NRT on their own,” she said.
While the 7% improvement in quit rates with mailed NRT was not statistically significant, Vickerman said the findings suggest that NRT is a promising intervention and needs further examination in larger trials.
“Our study was underpowered to detect a difference of this size; this would be a clinically important difference if it held up in a future, larger study,” she said.
“Given that NRT appeared to be safe (with no unusual side effects) and acceptable for young adults in this study, we would feel comfortable dosing and mailing NRT without coach interaction in future studies. The mHealth intervention had a smaller effect but still warrants further investigation in future trials as mHealth interventions are easily scalable and can reach more individuals in need of help at a lower cost,” she continued.
Vickerman added they would like to better understand which components of the quitline-based intervention are most effective for helping young adults successfully quit.
“It may be that all of the intervention components are not needed, or that one component, like mHealth, is more successful in reaching and engaging participants, but some individuals who vape may need a higher level of support to be successful, like one-on-one coaching,” Vickerman said.
“Understanding the impact of the individual components can inform how best to use public health resources and offer vaping cessation interventions through state quitlines. In future trials, we plan to expand who is eligible to individuals who both vape and use other tobacco products,” she concluded.
