Options was a research study at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
Which Products Help Avoid Regular Cigs?
According to results from the first Options Study, alternative products like vapes or cigarettes with very low levels of nicotine (VLNCs) seemed to help people with no intention of quitting smoking to avoid smoking their regular brand of cigs—not just during a trial switch week but even in the week thereafter.
These results, from the study led by UW-CTRI Director of Research Dr. Megan Piper, were recently published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence. To read more about it, click here.
If you’d like to quit smoking, chewing or vaping, please try the Wisconsin Tobacco Quit Line or check out our other research studies.
We will be conducting a second Options study beginning on or around April 21, 2025. For more information, write to Chris at: infoctri@ctri.wisc.edu
The Options Study was conducted by UW-CTRI in the Madison and Milwaukee areas. Participants temporarily switched from just smoking to alternative products. These products included Juul e-cigarettes or cigarettes with very low nicotine content. Participants were paid up to $380.
The study was featured in the Wisconsin State Journal.
The Options Study was made possible by a $1.4 million three-year grant from the National Cancer Institute and Food and Drug Administration to the UW Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention (UW-CTRI).
All study participants were people who didn’t want to quit smoking, but were willing to switch from their cigarettes to something new for a week. The four weeks of the study had different goals:
- Week 1: Try out the study product they were randomly assigned to use: Juul e-cigarettes, VLN cigarettes or no alternative product. They could smoke their own cigarettes as usual.
- Week 2 (Switch Week): Don’t smoke their own cigarettes but use a patch (active or placebo) and their assigned study product.
- Week 3: Smoke their own cigarettes and use their study product as much as they want.
- Week 4 (Switch Week): Don’t smoke their own cigarettes but use a patch (if they had an active patch with nicotine in Week 2 they now had a placebo patch with no nicotine or vice versa) and their assigned study product.
“The landscape of tobacco products is changing and we need to understand how people use these products in the real world and how they compare to their regular cigarettes,” said Dr. Megan Piper (right), UW-CTRI associate director of research and principal investigator on the study. “This information will help inform the US Food and Drug Administration as they try to make rules about tobacco products.”
When patients volunteer for the Options Study, research staff will discuss safety protocols for COVID-19 and the study itself.
Kate Kobinsky (left) is coordinating various aspects of the study.