In a recent study published on Chest Journal, Czech conducted a survey asking “Do e-cigarettes have the potential to compete with conventional cigarettes?” The survey is of conventional cigarette smoker’s experiences with e-cigarettes.
(EC = E-Cigarette)
From the 2,012 people seen smoking or buying cigarettes in the Czech Republic, they were approached to answer questions about smoking, with no mention made of EC to avoid the common bias in surveys of EC users. During the interview, the volunteers’ experience with EC was then discussed.
The Results? –Â 1,738 (86%) smokers participated in the survey, of the 2,012 people approached. Half of those participants reported trying EC at least once. Among those who tried EC, 18.3% (CI (95%) .15.7 to 20.9%) reported using them regularly and 14% (CI (95%) 11.6%-16.2%) used them daily.
On average, regular users used EC daily for 7.1 months. The most common reason for using EC was to reduce consumption of conventional cigarettes; 60% of regular EC users reported that EC helped them to achieve this. Being older and having a more favourable initial experience with EC explained 19% of the variance in progressing to regular EC use.
