TY - JOUR T1 - Has growth in electronic cigarette use by smokers been responsible for the decline in use of licensed nicotine products? Findings from repeated cross-sectional surveys JF - Thorax JO - Thorax SP - 974 LP - 978 DO - 10.1136/thoraxjnl-2015-206801 VL - 70 IS - 10 AU - Emma Beard AU - Jamie Brown AU - Ann McNeill AU - Susan Michie AU - Robert West Y1 - 2015/10/01 UR - http://thorax.bmj.com/content/70/10/974.abstract N2 - Background The rise in electronic cigarette use by smokers may be responsible for the decreased use of licensed nicotine products and/or increased overall use of non-tobacco nicotine-containing products. This paper reports findings from the Smoking Toolkit Study (STS) tracking use of electronic cigarettes and licensed nicotine products to address this issue.Methods Data were obtained from monthly surveys involving 14 502 cigarette smokers in England between March 2011 and November 2014. Smokers were asked about their use of electronic cigarettes and licensed nicotine products.Results Prevalence of electronic cigarette use increased rapidly from 2.2% (95% CI 1.4% to 3.2%) in quarter 2 of 2011 to 20.8% (95% CI 18.3% to 23.4%) in quarter 3 of 2013, after which there was no change. Prevalence of licensed nicotine product use in smokers remained stable from quarter 2 of 2011 (17.4%, 95% CI 15.3% to 19.8%) to quarter 3 of 2013 (17.9%, 95% CI 15.62% to 20.5%), and thereafter declined steadily to 7.9% (95% CI 6.0% to 10.4%). Prevalence of use of any product was stable to quarter 1 of 2012, after which it increased from 18.5% (95% CI 16.3% to 21.0%) to 33.3% (95% CI 30.4% to 36.3%) in quarter 3 of 2013, and then decreased to 22.7% (95% CI 19.3% to 26.3%).Conclusions The shapes of trajectories since 2011 suggest that electronic cigarettes are probably not responsible for the decline in use of licensed nicotine products. Electronic cigarettes appear to have increased the total market for use of non-tobacco nicotine-containing products. ER -