Some have touted e-cigarettes as a game-changing innovation that will dramatically help reduce smoking. Others argue that they will do just the opposite – putting at risk decades of tobacco control achievements.
A new trial funded by a Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC) feasibility study grant will collect real-time data from e-cigarette users over two months using a novel ‘smart’ e-cigarette to provide new insights into the debate.
The smart e-cigarettes allow the collection of unprecedented real-time data about e-cigarette usage, including puff duration and nicotine intake, and the frequency and intensity of use.
Microprocessor-controlled vaporizers in the smart e-cigarettes will capture and record users’ behaviour on either an Android or iOS device using Bluetooth technology, while a GPS tracker monitors where participants have used them. The smart e-cigarettes will be used together with an app-based questionnaire that collects information about the participants’ use of smoked tobacco.
E-cigarettes do not involve tobacco combustion and so reduce – but not eliminate – exposure to toxins produced by smoked tobacco.
Lead researcher, Marketing Professor Janet Hoek from the University of Otago, Dunedin, says the use of smart e-cigarettes will help to examine currently unanswered questions about whether, and over what timeframe, people transition from smoking tobacco to using e-cigarettes, and how e-cigarette use evolves over time.
“While there is general agreement that e-cigarettes are safer than combustible tobacco, smokers will only achieve substantial risk reductions if they switch completely from smoking to using e-cigarettes,” says Professor Hoek.
“Our current understanding of the transition between smoking and e-cigarette use is poor, and we lack the data needed to assess whether dual use is a transitional behaviour that supports smoking cessation, or a sustained behaviour pattern that promotes continued tobacco use.”
The findings from this study are intended to inform a larger study that will include testing the potential of e-cigarettes to help achieve New Zealand’s smokefree 2025 goal.
HRC Chief Executive Professor Kath McPherson says alternative forms of delivering nicotine such as e-cigarettes have become very popular, even in New Zealand where no nicotine-delivering e-cigarettes are currently approved for use as aids to stop smoking (importation for personal use is permitted).
“E-cigarettes are a topic of hot debate both here and internationally. Research such as this will help us build up the evidence that we need to determine if e-cigarettes actually do help people quit smoking. The outcomes should be of great interest to the many other countries that are currently debating e-cigarette policy guidelines.”
This year the HRC has awarded seven feasibility study grants worth a combined total of $1.05 million. Feasibility study grants are designed for where there is strong evidence to justify a larger study, but where critical practical information is needed to make the potential study clearly fundable.
See below for the full list of 2016 HRC Feasibility Study recipients or to read lay summaries of the research projects, go to our research repository and filter for ‘Researcher Initiated Proposals,’ ‘Feasibility Studies’ and ‘2016’.
2016 Feasibility Study Grants
Associate Professor Bob Hancox, University of Otago, Dunedin
Beta-blockers in COPD: Feasibility of an RCT in stable patients
12 months, $149,908
Professor Janet Hoek, University of Otago, Dunedin
Feasibility assessment of a smart e-cigarette
12 months, $149,749
Dr Rinki Murphy, University of Auckland
Probiotics for prediabetes: Dose-ranging and MRI feasibility study
12 months, $149,209
Professor Pauline Norris, University of Otago, Dunedin
Randomised controlled trial of prescription charges: Feasibility study
12 months, $149,999
Dr Mihi Ratima, Te Pou Tiringa Incorporated
Te Kura Mai i Tawhiti
12 months, $150,000
Dr Lisa Te Morenga, University of Otago, Dunedin
Validation of a dietary intake biomarker for free sugars intake
12 months, $149,997
Dr Paul Young, Medical Research Institute of New Zealand
Paracetamol therapy in critical illness
12 months, $149,798