News briefs

Long term cardiovascular outcomes of COVID‐19

United States research, published in Nature Medicine, has shown that beyond the first 30 days of infection, people with COVID‐19 exhibited increased risks and 12‐month burdens of incident cardiovascular diseases, including cerebrovascular disorders, dysrhythmias, inflammatory heart disease, ischaemic heart disease, heart failure, thromboembolic disease and other cardiac disorders. “The risks were evident regardless of age, race, sex and other cardiovascular risk factors, including obesity, hypertension, diabetes, chronic kidney disease and hyperlipidemia; they were also evident in people without any cardiovascular disease before exposure to COVID‐19, providing evidence that these risks might manifest even in people at low risk of cardiovascular disease,” the researchers wrote. They analysed data from national health care databases from the US Department of Veterans Affairs to build a cohort of 153 760 individuals with COVID‐19, as well as two cohorts comprising 5 637 647 contemporary controls and 5 859 411 historical controls. The authors detailed two major findings: “the risks and associated burdens were evident among those who were not hospitalized during the acute phase of the disease—this group represents the majority of people with COVID‐19”; and “the risks and associated burdens exhibited a graded increase across the severity spectrum of the acute phase of COVID‐19 (from non‐hospitalized to hospitalized individuals to those admitted to intensive care)”.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01689-3

E‐cigarettes linked to fewer successful quitters than other smoking cessation aids

Using e‐cigarettes to stop smoking may result in fewer successful quit attempts than trying to quit using other smoking cessation aids, such as nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), suggests US research, published in Tobacco Control. Researchers used data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study, a national long term study of tobacco use in the US. In 2017, the study included data on 3578 established smokers who had made a recent quit attempt, and 1323 recent former smokers. Respondents were asked what they had used to try to quit: e‐cigarettes; NRT (nicotine patch, gum, inhaler, nasal spray, lozenge or tablet); other tobacco products; or the pharmaceuticals Chantix, varenicline, Wellbutrin, Zyban or bupropion. Abstinence from e‐cigarettes or other tobacco products (cigarette abstinence), and all tobacco products and e‐cigarettes (tobacco abstinence) was deemed to be a period of 12 or more months in a row. The researchers compared the use of any e‐cigarette product for a quit attempt with nothing at all, as well as the use of any type of e‐cigarette compared with NRT or one of the listed pharmaceuticals. In 2017, more than 12% of those who had recently attempted to quit said they used e‐cigarettes either by themselves or combined with other products; 2.5% said they had used other tobacco products; 21% used NRT or a pharmaceutical aid; and 64% did not use anything. Among recent former smokers, just over 15% had switched to e‐cigarettes and 16% said they had used another tobacco product. The rest said they had not used anything. Those who used e‐cigarettes to help them quit in the year before the 2017 survey were less likely to have successfully quit by 2019 than those who used nothing at all (10% v 19%). E‐cigarette use was associated with seven fewer successful quitters per 100 would‐be quitters than other pharmaceutical aids, after accounting for potentially influential factors. Switching to e‐cigarettes did not reduce the risk of relapse compared with those who did not switch to these products: nearly 60% of recent former smokers who were daily e‐cigarette users had resumed smoking by 2019. This was an observational study, and as such, could not establish cause.

https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/2022/01/11/tobaccocontrol-2021-056901