BETHESDA, Md., Feb. 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A new study reveals
that most adults hold beliefs about the harms from nicotine that
are opposite from what scientists have concluded. The findings,
presented at the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco
24th Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, highlight the need to
correct misperceptions about the harmfulness of nicotine so that
adults can make informed decisions about use of nicotine-containing
and lower risk tobacco products.
Nicotine is present in combustible cigarettes, e-cigarettes and
FDA-approved nicotine replacement therapies used to help smokers
stop smoking. The FDA[1] and other authorities have
concluded that there is a continuum of risk for nicotine and
tobacco products, with combustible cigarettes by far the most
hazardous and nicotine replacement therapies as the least
hazardous. To examine adults' knowledge of tobacco and nicotine
harmfulness, researchers analyzed data from 1,736 US adults in the
government-run 2017 Health Information National Trends Survey
(HINTS-FDA Cycle 2).
Adults' beliefs about nicotine and tobacco products are not
completely wrong. For example, a majority of adults (84.7%)
correctly knew that nicotine is the substance that makes people
want to smoke, and 96.2% knew that cigarettes are harmful. On the
other hand, other results revealed important misunderstandings that
may have critical consequences for health.
Among all adults, 52.9% incorrectly believed that nicotine is
the substance causing most of the cancer caused by smoking, and an
additional 21.2% did not know whether nicotine causes most cancer
caused by smoking. Cigarette smokers were significantly more likely
than e-cigarette users to incorrectly believe that nicotine causes
most of the cancer caused by smoking (52.5% vs. 14.6%). In
addition, while experts continue to debate the magnitude of the
difference in risk between e-cigarettes and cigarettes, just 31.6%
of smokers agreed that e-cigarettes are less harmful than
cigarettes—including only 3.4% who are plausibly "correct" in
believing they are much less harmful than combustible
cigarettes.
"That adults' misperceptions about the health effects of
nicotine persist despite the long-term availability of FDA-approved
over-the-counter nicotine replacement products is troubling and
needs to be addressed with clear communications to the
public—especially smokers—that nicotine is not what is
causing smoking-related disease," said Karen K. Gerlach Ph.D., M.P.H., the lead author
on the study. "Leading public health experts[2] have
called for trusted authorities to communicate clearly about
nicotine to smokers, which should help them understand that there
is a continuum of risk across nicotine-containing products and use
that understanding to help them reduce risks to their health."
About PinneyAssociates
PinneyAssociates is a pharmaceutical and consumer
healthcare consulting company that helps their clients to reduce
their regulatory risk and enhance the commercial and public health
value of their life sciences products. PinneyAssociates
consults with pharmaceutical companies that market a wide variety
of prescription and over-the-counter medications.
PinneyAssociates' experts have extensive expertise in
abuse-deterrent drug formulation evaluation, abuse potential
assessment, as well as pharmaceutical risk management, Rx-to-OTC
switch, and tobacco harm reduction.
All authors are employees of PinneyAssociates, Inc.
PinneyAssociates provides consulting services on tobacco
harm minimization (including nicotine replacement therapy and vapor
products) to Niconovum USA, Inc.,
R.J. Reynolds Vapor Company, and RAI Services Company, all
subsidiaries of Reynolds American Inc. Reynolds American was
purchased by British American Tobacco in July 2017. Mr. Gitchell co-holds a patent for a
novel nicotine medication that has not been developed or
commercialized. RAIS had no role in the conception of this
research, or the analysis or interpretation of the
findings.
Author Contact: To arrange an interview with the author,
please contact Michelle Ertischek,
at mertischek@pinneyassociates.com or +1 240-752-9053
For more information about PinneyAssociates, please
contact us at +1.301.718.8440 or info@pinneyassociates.com, or
learn more about our work at www.pinneyassociates.com.
[1] Gottlieb and Zeller. A nicotine-focused framework
for public health. N Engl J Med. 2017 Sep
21;377(12):1111-1114. Available at
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1707409
[2] Fairchild, Niaura and Abrams. America needs a
candid smoking control champion. 13 Nov
2017. The Hill. Available from:
http://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/360111-america-needs-a-candid-smoking-control-champion
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