Bill Godshall – New Study shows Snus most effective in Quitting Smoking

Study: Snus more effective and prevalent than NRT for quitting smoking among Norwegian men

A new study (abstract below) found that snus (despite being demonized by anti-tobacco extremists and government health agencies worldwide) has helped far more Norwegian men quit smoking than have NRT products, and that snus has been more effective for smoking cessation than the use of NRT products (despite drug industry funded anti-tobacco groups and government health agencies aggressively urging smokers to use NRT products to quit smoking).

I strongly suggest everyone interested in public health, truthfulness, human rights and responsible tobacco/nicotine product regulation read the full text of this article, as the abstract only scratches the surface of the study’s many important findings.

Bill Godshall

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The use of snus for quitting smoking compared with medicinal products

Nicotine & Tobacco Research Advance Access published online on July 9, 2010

Karl Erik Lund, Ph.D., Ann McNeill, Ph.D. and Janne Scheffels, Ph.D.

http://ntr.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/ntq105v1

Full text of article at:

http://ntr.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/ntq105v1

Abstract

Introduction: Given there are few experimental studies comparing the effects of snus and medicinal products for quitting smoking, self-reports from smokers who have used different methods for quitting smoking can be informative.

Methods: Fourteen thousand seven hundred and forty-four Norwegian men aged between 20 and 50 years were selected at random from a national representative web panel and sent a questionnaire by E-mail. Of the 7,170 (48.6%) who responded, there were 1,775 former and 1,808 current smokers. They were asked about the method they used and the outcome of their last attempt to quit smoking.

Results: In a regression model in which education, number of previous attempts to quit smoking, perception of risk, and age were controlled for, the odds ratio (OR) for reporting total abstinence at the time of the survey was significantly higher for those who had used varenicline (OR = 4.95, p < .006) and snus (OR = 2.68, p < .001) compared with those who had used nicotine chewing gum (reference OR = 1). For smokers who reported that they had tried to quit with the help of snus, 62.4% reported that they still used snus at the time of the survey either daily (43.8%) or occasionally (18.6%). The proportion who still used medicinal nicotine products at the time of the survey was 9.5%.

Discussion: Compared with medicinal nicotine products, snus and varenicline increased the probability of quitting smoking completely, but snus seemed to maintain nicotine dependence.