Study: E-cigarette use not tied to greater rates of smoking cessation.

The Washington Post (3/25, Millman) “Wonkblog” reports that a research letter published March 24 in “JAMA Internal Medicine found that use of e-cigarettes was not associated with ‘greater rates of quitting cigarettes or reduced cigarette consumption’ after one year.” The study “authors reached the conclusion based on self-reported data from 949 smokers, which included 88 who used e-cigarettes.”

        The Los Angeles Times (3/25, MacVean) “Science Now” blog reports that “researchers from the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education and the Department of Medicine at” the University of California-San Francisco “noted that e-cigarettes are ‘aggressively promoted as smoking cessation aids.’” But, given the findings of the study, “‘regulations should prohibit advertising, claiming or suggesting that e-cigarettes are effective smoking cessation devices until claims are supported by scientific evidence,’ the researchers...wrote.”

        Still, the Boston Globe (3/25, Kotz) points out that the study’s “small sample size makes it difficult to draw firm conclusions, admits study leader Dr. Pamela Ling, an associate professor of medicine at” UCSF.

        Newsday (3/25, Ricks) points out that “earlier this month,” researchers “found in a study of thousands of youths that the addictive nicotine in e-cigs may lure teens to more potent sources of the substance.”

        According to MedPage Today (3/25, Phend), an accompanying editorial written by JAMA Internal Medicine editor Mitchell Katz, MD, “further advocated FDA regulation” of e-cigarettes “as drug-delivery devices.” MedPage Today added that the FDA “has regulations in the works that are expected to generally bring the same kind of restrictions to e-cigarettes as to other tobacco products.” Some of the data for the study came from National Cancer Institute-funded research.

        Also covering the story are Reuters (3/25, Seaman), theMinneapolis Star Tribune (3/25, Stoxen) “Health Check” blog, the CBS News (3/25, Jaslow) website, Time (3/25, Sifferlin), HealthDay (3/25, Reinberg), Medscape (3/25, Cassels), and a Modern Healthcare (3/25, Johnson, Subscription Publication) blog.