Almost half of young vapers are able to stop with quitline help

Quitline coaching over the phone helped almost half of young people who vape ditch the habit, potentially improving their health and decreasing the chances they’ll transition to cigarettes, according to a new study.

The finding is promising and provides critical evidence about vaping cessation, an area with limited research to date, said Liz Klein, 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 today (Dec. 10, 2024).

“This study provides hope that young adult vapers want to quit and can be successful in breaking their addiction to nicotine,” Klein said. “This is such an essential group for disruption of that behavior on or before they enter into more established adulthood.”

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.

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 said. The team had hypothesized that younger people might not be eager to talk on the phone with coaches and might prefer text messages.

In 2016, the U.S. 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 said.

“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.”

Other Ohio State researchers involved in the study are Julianna Nemeth and Abigail Shoben. Klein and Katrina Vickerman of RVO Health were co-principal investigators.