Does Smokeless Tobacco Help Smokers Quit Cigarettes?

January 26, 2009 By Kim Edwards

(PhysOrg.com) -- Some smokers say they just can’t quit cigarettes. But previous studies of smokers in Sweden have suggested that many have done just that, by switching to smokeless tobacco. While not without health risks, smokeless tobacco is less harmful than cigarettes. With that in mind, an international team of researchers asked the question, “Should public health officials start promoting smokeless tobacco as a way to reduce the overall harm caused by tobacco?” The answer: “Not so fast.”

According to a study from the University of California, San Diego and Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet, there are important differences between the United States and Sweden with respect to how people use—and quit—tobacco. The study, in the online issue of Tobacco Control, examined data from more than 15,000 individuals in the U.S. who were surveyed twice, a year apart, to get a picture of tobacco use and cessation in the U.S.

“In Sweden, many smokers have quit smoking by switching to snus,” said Shu-Hong Zhu, Ph.D., Professor of Family and Preventive Medicine in the UCSD School of Medicine. (Snus—pronounced snoos—is a form of moist, powdered tobacco that comes in a small sachet and is placed under the lip.) “This has piqued a lot of interest, because anything that helps people quit cigarettes could have huge benefits due to the great harm caused by smoking.”

“Historically, there has been no campaign to promote snus to Swedes as a safer alternative to cigarettes,” said Hans Gilljam, M.D. a Professor at the Karolinska Institutet and a study author. “But snus has been popular among male smokers, and has helped them quit cigarettes. In fact, Swedish men have a higher smoking cessation rate than Swedish women, few of whom use snus.”

The researchers looked for a similar effect among U.S. smokers, but didn’t find one. Like their counterparts in Sweden, U.S. men are much more likely than women to use smokeless tobacco. But it does not boost their rate of quitting smoking.

Zhu explained, “With an ongoing tobacco control effort, men in the U.S. seem to be quitting smoking at higher rates than men in Sweden. And U.S. women are quitting at the same rate, unlike their counterparts in Sweden.”

These findings are important because there has been a vigorous debate in the international public health community about whether tobacco control programs should stop advocating complete tobacco cessation and start promoting smokeless tobacco as a less-harmful alternative to smoking. If Sweden’s results were to be replicated in a longitudinal study from another country, it would support promoting smokeless as a harm-reduction strategy.

The current study examined data from the Tobacco Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey, 2002, with one-year follow-up in 2003. Results showed both male and female smokers in the U.S. appear to have higher quit rates for smoking than their Swedish counterparts, despite greater use of smokeless tobacco in Sweden.

Over a one-year period, the study tracked the quit rates, and the rates of switching from one form of tobacco to another, of more than 15,000 adult participants. It showed that:

• Among U.S. men, less than one percent of current smokers switched to smokeless tobacco during the 12 month study.

• Only 1.7 percent of former smokers turned to smokeless tobacco.

• Men’s quit rate for smokeless tobacco was three times higher than for cigarettes.

• Even though men were far more likely to use smokeless tobacco products than women, overall, they had no advantage over women in quitting smoking (11.7 percent vs. 12.4 percent).

The Swedish data showed just the opposite: Swedes who use smokeless tobacco are likely to keep using it, rather than switching to other tobacco products. Their habit is relatively stable. By comparison, Swedes who smoke cigarettes are more likely to switch to other tobacco products, such as smokeless tobacco. Their habit is less stable.

“Many public health officials and scientists have cautioned that the Swedish results may be unique to Sweden,” explained Zhu. “This research confirms that idea.”

The study can be accessed online here.

Background:

Some have proposed that a campaign to promote smokeless tobacco as a safer alternative to cigarettes would lead to improved smoking cessation and reduced tobacco-related death and disease. Those who oppose this approach are concerned that it could dilute the overall anti-tobacco message and have a negative net impact on public health compared to current, proven tobacco control strategies.

It is difficult to gauge the likelihood of either a benefit or detriment to public health from promoting smokeless tobacco, because the arguments for each involve assumptions about population behavior, and empirical data to verify these assumptions are hard to obtain.

Provided by UC San Diego

Filter


Move the slider to adjust rank threshold, so that you can hide some of the comments.


Display comments: newest first

bredmond
Jan 26, 2009

Rank: not rated yet
Wow! Shock to me! I was a heavy smoker for 3 years and I couldnt quit. After the patch, i tried cold turkey a few times and rebounded to smokless tobacco. i quit that and was 'straight' for a year then I had about a month of cloves and bidis(sp?) before i gave it up all together. I havent had any tobacco for about ten years. havent even missed it. Of course I only smoked for 3 years, but it was pretty heavily. I even smoked refrys from my friend's parents ashtray. Yay!
Rank 5 /5 (2 votes)
Relevant PhysicsForums posts

More news stories

Overeating may double risk of memory loss

New research suggests that consuming between 2,100 and 6,000 calories per day may double the risk of memory loss, or mild cognitive impairment (MCI), among people age 70 and older. The study was released today and will be ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created 35 minutes ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Injured boomers beware: Know when to see doctor

(AP) -- It happened to nurse Jane Byron years after an in-line skating fall, business owner Haralee Weintraub while doing "men's" push-ups, and avid cyclist Gene Wilberg while lifting a heavy box.

Medicine & Health / Health

created 5 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Starve a virus, feed a cure? Findings show how some cells protect themselves against HIV

A protein that protects some of our immune cells from the most common and virulent form of HIV works by starving the virus of the molecular building blocks that it needs to replicate, according to research published online ...

Medicine & Health / Research

created 4 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

FDA-approved drug rapidly clears amyloid from the brain, reverses Alzheimer's symptoms in mice

Neuroscientists at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have made a dramatic breakthrough in their efforts to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease. The researchers' findings, published in the journal Science, show t ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Feb 09, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (57) | comments 15 | with audio podcast

Green tea found to reduce disability in the elderly

(Medical Xpress) -- A lot of research has been done over the past several years looking into the health benefits of green tea. As a result, scientists have found that regular consumption of the beverage leads ...

Medicine & Health / Health

created Feb 07, 2012 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (15) | comments 10 | with audio podcast report


Google might launch Drive for cloud storage soon

(PhysOrg.com) -- Google's next big move, according to the Wall Street Journal, is a cloud storage service called Drive. Hardly first to the plate, Google is simply catching up to introducing its cloud reposi ...

Scientists discover molecular secrets of 2,000-year-old Chinese herbal remedy

For roughly two thousand years, Chinese herbalists have treated Malaria using a root extract, commonly known as Chang Shan, from a type of hydrangea that grows in Tibet and Nepal. More recent studies suggest that halofuginone, ...

New method to examine batteries -- MRI from the inside

There is an ever-increasing need for advanced batteries for portable electronics, such as phones, cameras, and music players, but also to power electric vehicles and to facilitate the distribution and storage of energy derived ...

Lab study raises questions over nano-particle impact

Tests involving chickens have raised questions about the impact on health from engineered nano-particles, the ultra-fine grains commonly used in drugs and processed foods, scientists said on Sunday.

A mitosis mystery solved: How chromosomes align perfectly in a dividing cell

Although the process of mitotic cell division has been studied intensely for more than 50 years, Whitehead Institute researchers have only now solved the mystery of how cells correctly align their chromosomes during symmetric ...

Researchers find extensive RNA editing in human transcriptome

In a new study published online in Nature Biotechnology, researchers from BGI, the world's largest genomics organization, reported the evidence of extensive RNA editing in a human cell line by analysis of RNA-seq data, demons ...