How to Generate Bogus Conclusions (E-Cig Study Edition)

[NoOneMan]

106. Oh good god.

As long as they're using nicotine, they should be considered "smokers".

We conducted a longitudinal analysis of a national sample of current US smokers to determine whether e-cigarette use predicted successful quitting or reduced cigarette consumption.

Look, if you disagree with it you can counter their premise with your own dissertation. But for the sake of the study, and in the general argument of "harm reduction", all that we should be interested in knowing is if a single variable can significantly predict the reduction in first and second hand harm among a population.

There is no reason to study pure e-ciggars. They have already successfully quit. The only interest in studying them is to see how many non-former smokers who use e-cigarettes become cigarette consumers (but that is a tangent) or relapse.

This study does EXACTLY what it intended to do. It shows how this variable (vaping nicotine) among a population (smokers) predicts cessation of smoking. In the end, such behavior among this particular population in this particular study predicts a reduction in quitting, despite a signalled increase in the desire to quit.