A new review has summarised the current evidence on what helps and hinders health professionals in supporting patients to quit vaping. The study looked at the perspectives of health professionals who work directly with clients.
UCRH’s Dr Larisa Barnes, Dr Jo Longman and Professor Megan Passey were three of the four authors of the work now published in Public Health Research & Practice.
The authors screened over 10,000 articles and included 21 studies in their analysis. They found that barriers to providing vaping cessation support were more commonly reported than facilitators. Common barriers included a lack of knowledge, insufficient training, and competing priorities. On the other hand, health professionals’ sense of responsibility and willingness to help were the main facilitators.
Most of the studies were from the US and used surveys to gather data. They often focused on using e-cigarettes to quit smoking traditional cigarettes, highlighting a gap in research specifically on quitting vaping.
The review suggests that more qualitative studies, especially in Australia, are needed to better understand the challenges and opportunities in offering vaping cessation support. It also recommends that future research should separately analyse the views of different types of health professionals, such as allied health professionals and medical doctors.
