No health benefits among adults who used both e-cigarettes and traditional cigarettes
Berlowitz JB, Xie W, Harlow AF, et al. E-cigarette Use and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease: A Longitudinal Analysis of the PATH Study, 2013-2019. Circulation. 6 May 2022. “After adjusting for covariates, participants exclusively using e-cigarettes had risk of developing any CVD [cardiovascular disease] condition that did not differ from nonusers and higher, albeit nonsignificant, risk of the MI [myocardial infarction], HF [heart failure], or stroke outcome (hazard ratio [HR], 1.00 [95% CI, 0.69–1.45] and HR, 1.35 [95% CI, 0.75–2.42], respectively). Compared with smoking, e-cigarette use was associated with 30% to 40% lower CVD risk, although this association was only significant for any CVD outcome. Dual users had risk that did not differ from exclusive smokers for any CVD and MI, HF, or stroke outcomes (HR, 1.01 [95% CI, 0.81–1.26] and HR, 0.94 [95% CI, 0.65–1.36], respectively).”
Comment: Although the risk of any CVD outcome was lower for e-cigarette users, the limitations of this study were the small number of self-reports of CVD events over a span of only six years, such that authors call for further study to determine the significance of these findings. However, the results of dual use show that e-cigarettes when used with combustible cigarettes provide no reduction of cardiovascular risk as compared to tobacco smoking. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.121.057369
Stephen Hamann
