ReviewTobacco prevention & cessation2021
Efficacy and safety of electronic cigarettes as a smoking cessation intervention: A systematic review and network meta-analysis.
Review in Tobacco prevention & cessation, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2026Pooled it
- Electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2025Pooled it
- Health impacts of electronic nicotine delivery systems: an umbrella review of systematic reviews.BMJ open · 2025Pooled it
- Electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2025Pooled it
- Comparison of Acute Effects of E-cigarettes With and Without Nicotine and Tobacco Cigarettes on Hemodynamic and Endothelial Parameters: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.High blood pressure & cardiovascular prevention : the official journal of the Italian Society of Hypertension · 2024Pooled it
- Electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2022Pooled it
- Neuropharmacology of Nicotine Addiction and Therapeutic Strategies for Smoking Cessation.Biology · 2026Review
- Electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation: An overview of systematic reviews and evidence and gap map.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Review
- Electronic Nicotine Delivery Devices: What We Know and Its Implications for India Electronic Nicotine Delivery Devices.Indian journal of psychological medicine · 2025Article
- Sex-Related Differences in Oxidative, Platelet, and Vascular Function in Chronic Users of Heat-not-Burn vs. Traditional Combustion Cigarettes.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Review
- Saudi Heart Association Guidelines on Best Practices in the Management of Chronic Coronary Syndromes.Journal of the Saudi Heart Association · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionThis systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluated the efficacy and safety of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes, ENDS) in helping people who smoke to achieve abstinence compared with electronic non-nicotine delivery systems (ENNDS, no nicotine) or any smoking cessation comparator treatment or combination of treatments at 24-26 weeks and at 52 weeks.
methodsSystematic review techniques involved searches of three databases in February 2020 with update searches run on 14 May 2021, two-person independent screening, two-person independent assessment of bias, formal extraction of data with verification by a second person, a feasibility assessment to decide if meta-analysis was appropriate, and network meta-analysis (NMA) of data at 24-26 weeks. Data at 52 weeks were narratively summarized.
resultsTen RCTs met the inclusion criteria, eight for efficacy and ten for safety. Eight of the nine RCTs were assessed as at high risk of bias. The sample sizes of the RCTs were 30-2012. Using nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) as the reference treatment, the incidences of smoking cessation at 24-26 weeks were comparable between ENDS and NRT groups (RR=1.17; 95% CrI: 0.66-1.86). Three sensitivity analyses were carried out indicating the main findings for 24-26 weeks were robust to assumptions. The findings at 52 weeks were inconclusive.
conclusionsThis systematic review and NMA indicates that there is no clear evidence of a difference in effect between nicotine containing e-cigarettes and NRT on incidences of smoking cessation at 24-26 weeks, and substantial uncertainty remains.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.