Electronic cigarette use for quitting

smoking in England: 2015

www.smokinginengland.info/latest-statistics

Robert West
Jamie Brown
University College London
Background

• Electronic cigarette use has become prevalent in

many countries1
• In England, electronic cigarettes are currently
regulated primarily as consumer products
• It is important to track use of electronic
cigarettes and assess how far they appear to be
promoting or detracting from reduction in
prevalence of cigarette smoking
West R, Hajek P, Mcneill A, Brown J, Arnott D (2015) Electronic cigarettes:
1

what we know so far. A report to UK All Party Parliamentary Groups.

www.smokinginengland.info/reports/
www.smokinginengland.info/latest-statistics 2
Aims

• To estimate the numbers of smokers in England

who used an electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) in
an attempt to stop smoking in 2015
• To compare this with use of other aids to quitting

www.smokinginengland.info/latest-statistics 3
Methods

• Data were used from the Smoking Toolkit Study

– Monthly household surveys carried out for UCL by
IPSOS-MORI
– Each month involves a new representative sample of
~1700 respondents; people who smoked in the past
12 months ~350
• Smokers were asked whether they had tried to
quit in the past 12 months and what methods
they had used in up to three quit attempts
For more information, including the specific questions asked in the survey
see www.smokinginengland.info
www.smokinginengland.info/latest-statistics 4
Estimation

• To obtain the most accurate estimation of use of

e-cigarettes and licensed nicotine replacement
therapy (NRT) in 2015, we took data from the
last quarter of the year.

www.smokinginengland.info/latest-statistics 5
 % o f s m o k e r s w h o tr ie d to s to p in p a s t 1 2
Percentage making at least one quit
attempt in the past 12 months

50
32.8%
45

40

35

30

25

20

N=22,145 adults who smoked in the past year

www.smokinginengland.info/latest-statistics 6
 Aids used in quit attempt in past 12
% o f s m o k e rs try in g to a to p
months

39.5%
E-cigs Licensed NRT
50 Champix Behavioural supp
45
40
26.4%
35
30
25
20
15 6.5%
10
5
4.1%
0

N=7,796 adults tried to stop or who stopped in the past year; respondents
could use more than one method 7
www.smokinginengland.info/latest-statistics
 Estimating number of smokers using
e-cigs and NRT in a quit attempt

Smokers Used e-cigarette

Tried to quit
1.027
39.5%
million
32.8%
8 million 2.6
million
0.686
26.4%
million

NRT=licensed nicotine replacement therapy Used NRT

www.smokinginengland.info/latest-statistics 8
Percentage of smokers making a quit
attempt who used an e-cigarette in English
regions
South West 43.2

South East 36.8

London 19.8

East of England 43.8

West Midlands 32.1

East Midlands 38.8

Yorkshire and Humber 42.1

North West 37.7

North East 50.0

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Base: 1,315 smokers making at least one quit attempt in past 12 months,
who provided data in 2015; 95% confidence intervals approx. ±10%.

www.smokinginengland.info/latest-statistics 9
Study limitations
• The sample size for the estimation is
approximately 1500 giving a 95% confidence
interval around the estimated e-cigarette usage
figure of ±1.6%
• The study relies on smokers’ self-reported
activity over the past year and this may be
subject to forgetting or selective recall
• The questions are about quitting activity in the
previous 12 months so in principle some of the
quit attempts could have been in late 2014 but
the effect on the estimate would be very small
www.smokinginengland.info/latest-statistics 10
Conclusions

• In 2015 more quit attempts involved use of an e-

cigarette than licensed NRT
• More than 1 million smokers used an e-cigarette
compared with around 700K using a licensed
NRT
• There was marked regional variation with
London having lower rates than the rest of the
country

www.smokinginengland.info/latest-statistics 11