A recent study has revealed that nearly half of young adults who vape can successfully quit with assistance from quitline interventions. Published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the research was led by Dr. Katrina A. Vickerman from RVO Health in Fort Mill, South Carolina, and focused on the effectiveness of various support mechanisms for individuals aged 18 to 24 years seeking to stop vaping.

The study included 508 participants who exclusively and regularly vaped on at least 20 of the past 30 days and expressed an interest in quitting. They were randomly assigned to receive different combinations of support, including mailed nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) for eight weeks, a mobile health (mHealth) program consisting of text messages with links to educational videos and online content, or both, alongside an active control of a two-call quitline coaching program.

The results showed that 41 percent of participants who received only coaching calls achieved seven-day abstinence from vaping after three months. This rate increased slightly for those who received calls paired with mHealth (43 percent) and further for those who received calls with NRT (48 percent). A combination of calls, NRT, and mHealth yielded the same abstinence rate as calls with NRT alone, at 48 percent. Notably, there were no statistically significant differences between the groups based on whether participants received NRT or mHealth.

The authors highlighted the quitline's success in helping young adults quit vaping, with almost half of participants remaining abstinent after three months. However, they noted that higher-than-expected quit rates across all groups reduced the ability to identify significant differences between intervention combinations.

The study underscores the potential of quitline services in addressing vaping cessation among young adults, an age group particularly susceptible to nicotine addiction. Despite the promising results, further research may be needed to explore the specific impact of individual components such as NRT or mHealth on long-term cessation success.

It was also disclosed that several authors of the study are employed by RVO Health, the provider of quitline cessation services used in the trial.