Effects of Menthol Use and Transitions in Use on Short-term and Long-term Cessation from Cigarettes
Thursday, July 15, 2021
Posted by: Natalia Gromov
Leas
EC, Benmarhnia T, Strong DR, et al.
Effects of Menthol Use and
Transitions in Use on Short-term and Long-term Cessation from Cigarettes among
US Smokers.
Tobacco Control Published Online First: 06 July 2021. doi:
10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2021-056596
Objectives.
To estimate the effect of menthol use and transitions in use (switching to or
from menthol) on short-term and long-term cessation from cigarette smoking and
whether this differed across demographic groups (age, sex, race).
Methods.
We compared the probability of 30+ day and 12-month abstinence from cigarette
smoking by menthol use status using two cohorts of US adult cigarette smokers
who attempted to quit smoking in the Population Assessment of Tobacco and
Health (wave 1 to wave 3 and wave 2 to wave 4; n=5759), inverse probability of
treatment weighting and adjusted risk ratios (aRRs).
Results.
Using menthol (vs non-menthol) prior to a quit attempt decreased the
probability of 30+ day abstinence by 28% (aRR=0.78; 95% CI 0.67 to 0.91) and
the probability of 12-month abstinence by 53% (aRR=0.65; 95% CI 0.47 to 0.88).
Additionally, switching from menthol (vs maintaining menthol use) increased the
probability of 30+ day abstinence by 58% (aRR=1.58; 95% CI 1.00 to 2.50) and
the probability of 12-month abstinence by 97% (aRR=1.86; 95% CI 0.92 to 3.74).
Switching to menthol (vs maintaining non-menthol use) was associated with a
lower probability of 30+ day (aRR=0.70; 95% CI 0.42 to 1.16) and 12-month
abstinence (aRR=0.64; 95% CI 0.30 to 1.36), but these associations were
imprecise. The effects of menthol use on impaired quitting were slightly larger
for non-Hispanic Black smokers, but not different for other demographic groups.
Conclusion.
These results demonstrate that menthol impaired menthol smokers’ attempts to
quit smoking but switching from menthol improved success. This suggests that
removing menthol may improve menthol smokers’ success during quit attempts.
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