• Posted December 11, 2024

What Works Best to Help Young Vapers Quit?

Many young adults can kick their vaping habit with a little coaching and support.

New research published Dec. 10 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine shows that nearly half of a group of 18- to 24-year-olds were no longer vaping three months after completing a quit program that included a combination of phone-based coaching, a health app and nicotine replacement therapy. 

“This study provides hope that young adult vapers want to quit and can be successful in breaking their addiction to nicotine,” said researcher Liz Klein, chair of health behavior and health promotion with the Ohio State University College of Public Health.

The study included more than 500 young adults recruited through social media. Almost 80% of them vaped daily.

Researchers randomly assigned the participants to one of four groups. All of the groups received phone-based quitline coaching, but the other three also got mailed nicotine replacement therapy, a mobile app offering text and video support, or a combination of everything.

Three months after joining the study, results showed that 45% of the young adults were no longer vaping.

Because of the unexpectedly high success rate overall, researchers can’t say which of the quit supports worked best.

But the fact that everyone got quitline coaching indicates that phone-based support is a powerful option for vapers who want to quit.

The researchers were also surprised to learn that most study participants would recommend quitline calls. They had thought young adults might not like to talk on the phone and would prefer text-based support.

This support is critical, especially since the U.S. Surgeon General declared e-cigarette use an epidemic in 2016, as vaping leads to nicotine addiction, which can potentially harm the developing brain.

In 2020, nearly 1 in 4 (19%) young adults ages 18 to 20 and 14% of those ages 21 to 24 said they vaped, the researchers noted.

“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 in an Ohio State news release.

“We are very excited to see that this cessation approach worked so well in this group,” Klein said. “Next, we’d love to determine how to best facilitate quitting among young people who vape and smoke traditional cigarettes.”

More information

Harvard Medical School has more on quitting vaping.

SOURCE: Ohio State University, news release, Dec. 10, 2024