Nicotine e-cigarettes may be the most effective tool available for helping smokers quit, outperforming both traditional nicotine replacement therapies like patches and gum and non-nicotine vaping options, according to a major new systematic review published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.

The international team of researchers behind the review pooled data from 80 randomized controlled trials examining various smoking cessation approaches, drawing on results from nearly 30,000 smokers worldwide. Because the review was published as a "living systematic review," a format the Cochrane Database uses specifically to continuously incorporate ongoing and emerging evidence, it represents one of the most comprehensive and continuously updated assessments of smoking cessation methods currently available to inform evidence-based medical practice.

Researchers found high-certainty evidence that approximately four additional smokers out of every 100 will successfully quit using nicotine e-cigarettes compared with traditional nicotine replacement therapy options such as patches and gum, tools that have served as the primary recommendation from doctors for decades. Nicotine e-cigarettes also outperformed non-nicotine e-cigarettes, producing roughly two additional successful quitters per 100 smokers.

Nicola Lindson, the study's lead author and a smoking cessation expert at the University of Oxford, emphasized the practical importance of expanding available quitting options given how difficult the process typically proves for smokers. "Quitting smoking is hard and a lot of people who smoke will have tried many times to quit smoking and been........

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