Electronic Cigarettes for Smoking Cessation: Cochrane Living Systematic Review

Stay up-to-date

- Access our latest review here:

Electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation

- Access our regularly updated briefing documents here:

-Briefing materials for companion projects on biomarkers, flavours and longer-term use of e-cigarettes’

News and impact

Access selected press coverage received for the Electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation Cochrane review.

Disclaimer: by listing the articles we are not endorsing their content.

View press coverage

Presentations

This review has been presented to numerous national and international bodies. For a list of selected presentations please click on the link below.

Presentations

Since coming on the market over a decade ago, electronic cigarettes have caused a considerable stir in the public health community. It is of prime importance that the debate around this issue is based on high quality, relevant and up to date scientific data.

We want to be able to include all the evidence as it becomes available to ensure that the findings are as comprehensive as possible. With support from Cancer Research UK, we are searching monthly for new evidence for our Cochrane review of electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation (a “living systematic review” approach). Cochrane systematic reviews are recognised as the highest standard in evidence-based healthcare, bringing together primary research data to facilitate evidence based choices about health interventions. In April 2021 the first update to the review since it became a living review has been published.

Since its first publication in 2014, this review has contributed to national and international guidelines. There is a huge amount of misinformation circulating about electronic cigarettes, and we are actively involved in sharing the evidence with diverse audiences. This webpage provides the latest information from and on our review, which evaluates the safety and effect of using e-cigarettes to help people quit smoking. For our key findings see the latest version of the living review or our briefing documents, links above.

This review has informed numerous national and international healthcare guidelines. Click here for examples.

Older reviews:

Electronic Cigarettes for Smoking Cessation (Sept 2021)

Electronic Cigarettes for Smoking Cessation (Apr 2021)

Electronic Cigarettes for Smoking Cessation (2020)

Electronic Cigarettes for Smoking Cessation (2018)

Electronic Cigarettes for Smoking Cessation (2016)

Electronic Cigarettes for Smoking Cessation (2014) - cited in 12 Cochrane guidelines.

Partnerships

Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group

National Institute for Health Research

Cancer Research UK

Monthly search findings

To access the records picked up in our monthly searches since the publication of the last review update please click on the link below.

View search findings

Key publications:

Setting research priorities in tobacco control: a stakeholder engagement project

Lindson N. et al, (2017), Addiction, 112, 2257 - 2271

Twenty years of the Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group: Past, present, and future

Lindson-Hawley N. et al, (2018), Nicotine and Tobacco Research, 20, 147 - 153

The Cochrane review of electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation: Remaining focused on the evidence

Notley C. et al, (2021), European Respiratory Journal, 58

Longer-term use of electronic cigarettes when provided as a stop smoking aid: Systematic review with meta-analyses.

Butler AR. et al, (2022), Prev Med

Biomarkers of potential harm in people switching from smoking tobacco to exclusive e-cigarette use, dual use or abstinence: secondary analysis of Cochrane systematic review of trials of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation

Hartmann-Boyce J. et al, (2022), Addiction

An exploration of flavours in studies of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation: secondary analyses of a systematic review with meta-analyses

Lindson N. et al, (2022), Addiction

Podcasts & videos

Does banning smoking work? Oxford Sparks Big Questions

Researcher Stories: E-cigarettes

Sparking Engagement with Ailsa Butler: Smoking cessation and policy

Electronic Cigarettes for smoking cessation Nov 2022

Let's talk e-cigarettes | University of Oxford Podcasts - Audio and Video Lectures

Short information video: Cochrane review of electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation. (Sept 2021)

Cochrane review of electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation

People Using E-Cigarettes More Likely to Quit Smoking

US war on e-cigarettes

Can e-cigarettes help you stop smoking?

Eight ways to quit smoking in 2021

Nicotine: the way in and out of cigarette addiction?

View all related podcasts here

Views

Close-up of smoke against black background

7 things to know about e-cigarettes and quitting smoking

In this blog, Jamie Hartmann-Boyce from the Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group and Martin Dockrell from the Office of Health Improvement and Disparities share 7 things you need to know about e-cigarettes and quitting smoking, with evidence from the Cochrane Living Review of E-cigarettes and Smoking Cessation.