Scientists from Rutgers found many doctors incorrectly believe all tobacco products are equally harmful and thus are less likely to recommend e-cigarettes for people seeking to quit smoking or those being treated for a tobacco-caused disease.
The research is published in JAMA Network Open and was conducted by Michael Steinberg et al.
About 480,000 people die each year in the United States from smoking tobacco.
Although the Food and Drug Administration has not approved e-cigarettes as a cessation device, many people ask their physicians about using them as an alternative to tobacco cigarettes or as a way to help them stop smoking.
E-cigarettes use a heated liquid containing nicotine.
In the study, the team asked 2,058 U.S. doctors in 2018 and again in 2019 about their communication with patients about e-cigarettes.
The researchers asked how they would advise two different patients who wanted to quit smoking: a young woman who is a light smoker and had not yet tried to quit and an older man who smoked heavily and had tried to quit many times using different methods.
The team found that doctors were much more likely to recommend e-cigarettes for the heavy smoker while recommending FDA-approved medications, like nicotine gum or lozenges, for the light smoker.
Nearly 70 percent of the doctors reported that patients have asked them about e-cigarettes, and one-third said they were asked in the past 30 days.
More than 60 percent of the doctors incorrectly believed that all tobacco products are equally harmful.
These findings showed it is critical to address doctors’ misperceptions and educate them on e-cigarettes’ efficacy, particularly correcting their misperceptions that all tobacco products are equally harmful, as opposed to the fact that combusted tobacco is by far the most dangerous.
The study also found that doctors who used the U.S. Public Health Service Clinical Practice Guidelines for treating tobacco use and dependence were more likely to recommend e-cigarettes to patients as were those who endorsed a harm-reduction perspective and had themselves smoked cigarettes.
Doctors were also more likely to recommend e-cigarettes, however, if a patient asked about them first.
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If you care about smoking, please read studies about smoking may increase heart disease risk by 200%, and cigarette smoke may make some superbug bacterium more drug-resistant.
For more information about smoking, please see recent studies about e-cigarette smoke may cause lung cancer, bladder disease and results showing quitting smoking could lead to major changes in gut bacteria.
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