Free vapes at hospitals could save thousands of lives

Norwich Medical School physician suggests that “policy makers should seriously consider [hospitals] as a location for smoking cessation interventions.” 

Around a quarter of patients attending hospital emergency departments (ED) are smokers, and handing out free e-cigarette starter packs could help an extra 22,000 smokers kick the habit annually and save thousands of lives, according to research from the University of East Anglia (UAE).

Six hospitals in England and Scotland took part in a 30-month trial in which smokers attending the ED for whatever reason were given a vape starter pack and referred to stop smoking services, or given ‘usual care’ written information about locally available stop smoking services.

Almost one in four (23.4%) participants who had received the vape intervention had quit smoking after six months, compared to 12.9% of those who received the usual care, showing that people were twice as likely to quit having received the intervention than not. Those who had not quit said they were more likely to have reduced the number of cigarettes they smoked.

“[This approach] offers a chance to reach people who may not otherwise be motivated to quit, or who might not have the knowledge or resources to access stop smoking services.”

Dr Ian Pope, an emergency physician, and Honorary Associate Professor at UEA’s Norwich Medical School said, “This shows that helping people quit smoking whilst they wait in the emergency department is effective,” and “offers a chance to reach people who may not otherwise be motivated to quit, or who might not have the knowledge or resources to access stop smoking services.” He added that it also confirmed that e-cigarettes are effective at helping people to quit smoking.

Prof Caitlin Notley, also from UEA’s Norwich Medical School, said that vapes can be an “attractive option” for those wanting to stop smoking as they mimic the experience of cigarette smoking. “We know that they are much less harmful than smoking tobacco, and that they have been shown to help smokers quit. Smoking-related cancers, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases severely impact people’s quality of life as they get older and are a huge cost burden for the NHS,” she added.

Dr Olivia Bush, NHS Strategic Lead for Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) said: “This study shows that reaching people who smoke at the front door of the hospital is effective in helping them to quit. As a doctor seeing people outside A&E stressed and smoking is distressing in my role of caring for people’s health. This type of supportive initiative will improve the care we offer, reduce the number of patients we see outside the department smoking, making strides towards achieving smokefree hospital environments, and reinforce positive health messages.”

The trial was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and run by the Norwich Clinical Trials Unit at UEA. The research team hope the initiative will be rolled out to hospitals nationwide. Pope said he hoped it offered “a valuable opportunity to support people to quit smoking,” and added that “policy makers should seriously consider it as a location for smoking cessation interventions.”