Laserfiche WebLink
E-cigarettes: an evidence update <br /> <br />27 <br />smokers in GB and as discussed later, most EC users are smokers or ex-smokers). The <br />ASH survey also assessed trial and about 17% of the adu lt GB population was <br />estimated to have tried EC. <br /> <br />Table 1: Adult EC current use1 <br /> <br />Source (date of data collection) Population <br />Prevalence <br />Never <br />smokers <br />Ex-smokers Smokers <br />(‘Dual users’) <br />ASH Smokefree GB adult <br />survey <br />(2015 - March) <br />5.4% 0.2% 6.7% 17.6% <br />Office for National Statistics <br />(2014 - Q1) <br />N/A 0.1% 4.8% 11.8% <br />Smoking Toolkit Study <br />(2015 – Q1) <br />5.5% 0.2%2 3.3%2 21.2% <br /> <br />1For definitions of current use please see Appendix B. The ONS question is unavailable. <br />2Figures for never and long-term ex-smokers are derived from n=22489 never and long-term ex-smokers surveyed <br />between November 2013 and March 2015 <br /> <br />Never smokers and long-term ex-smokers <br />All three surveys estimate current EC use among adult never smokers to be very rare at <br />0.2% or less, and between 3% and 7% among ex-smokers – the latter estimates may <br />vary because in the STS recent ex-smokers (last-year) are not included in this category <br />(Table 1). Prevalence of current EC use among recent ex-smokers in the STS was <br />around 40% in the first quarter of 2015 [15]. <br /> <br />The ASH survey estimated that around 1.5% of never smokers and 16% of ex-smokers <br />had ever tried EC. <br /> <br />Smokers <br />Recent surveys estimate that current EC use among smokers, sometimes referred to as <br />‘dual users’ of cigarettes and e-cigarettes, is between 12 and 21% (Table 1). The <br />prevalence of EC use among last-year smokers (defined as smokers and recent ex- <br />smokers) using the STS in England is estimated at 22.9% for any use of EC and 14.9% <br />for daily EC use. The ASH 2015 survey indicated that 17.6% of current smokers use EC <br />currently (18% of occasional and 17% of daily smokers); the same survey indicated that <br />a small majority of smokers (59%) have now tried EC. <br /> <br />The Q1 2014 ONS Survey data estimates for current use are considerably lower, <br />suggesting that just under 12% of current smokers used EC in early 2014. The survey <br />question/s used to determine this is/are not available to assess whether different way s <br />of assessing use may be a reason for this discrepancy in findings.