Emergency and Trauma Nursing

Introduction: Nowadays, smoking is considered one of the most important preventable mortality causes. Smoking cessation in unquestionable beneficial for public health, as it has been proved in several scientific studies, even when

some of the techniques used are not completely harmless, such as Electronic cigarettes. Nurses have the duty to keep their knowledge updated, so they can develop their best care. The main objective of this study is to recognise the benefits and risks of E-cigarettes as an effective tool for smoking cessation, so nurses could beneficiate from this information on their daily basis.

 

Methods: It was employed a qualitative methodology with a literature review as a study design. The research was made about original publications that analyse the benefit/risk of E-cigarettes use against conventional cigarettes, between January 2013 and December 2018. Databases used were PubMed, Google Scholar, CINAHL, LILACS and Cochrane Library. Descriptors “DeCS” used were “vaping”, “lung disease”, “smoking” and “tobacco”, utilizing as Boolean operator “and”. As inclusion criteria, original publications written in English and/or Spanish were accepted, as well as full text publications, studies carried through in humans of both sexes who were over 18, and with a sample over 30 individuals. Several publications related to the topic of study were dismissed due to the realisation of chemical test of diverse substances included in e-cigarettes as lab test. After passing all the selection criteria previously described, a last filter was applied using the critical reading tool “CASPe”, obtaining a total of 8 articles that have been included on this report.

 

Results: 203 studies were initially identified, but just 21 were considered relevant after screening, and just 8 were eligible after passing CASPe. Overall, the analysed results prove that E-cigarettes are one of the most efficient alternatives to quit smoking without professional support. However, E cigarettes use is related to more breathing difficulties and more prevalence of COPD and Asthma, compared to non-smokers.

 

Conclusions: E-cigarettes may be considered as an interesting tool for smoking cessation in terms of risk/benefit if it is compared to other therapies. However, it could not be considered harmless and further research is needed.