e-CigS v1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
E-cigarette survey to investigate user understanding and perceptions
IRAS ID
351339
Contact name
Onn Shaun Thein
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Sandwell & West Birmingham NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Electronic cigarette (e-cigarette, vape) use has increased in the last ten years, and is now recommended to help stop smoking cigarettes. There is still not much information about the long-term effects on the body of e-cigarettes. To find out more about this, we need to be able to measure how much people are using e-cigarettes. With normal cigarettes, doctors work out how much people smoke using a measure called ‘pack-years’. Each pack year is a person smoking 20 cigarettes a day for a year. This gives a quick idea of how much someone smokes and the amount of damage that might cause. The problem with e-cigarettes is that the liquid or salt which gets vaporised can have different amounts of nicotine and flavours. Normal cigarettes have the same amount of tobacco (around 7g) whichever brand people might buy.
Before we can create a measure for e-cigarettes, we need to find out what people know about the e-cigarettes they use. This way, we can start to measure how much our patients use and then calculate any risk of using e-cigarettes in the long term.
With this survey, we want to find out what people know about the e-cigarettes they use, to try to develop an easy-to-use measure. We will ask if people use e-cigarettes as a way of stopping smoking or if they use them with normal cigarettes. In addition, we will ask what they think about using e-cigarettes. We will ask patients, visitors and staff working at Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust in the West Midlands. The Trust covers a large population, in one of the most deprived areas in the country, often under-represented in research. We will also advertise the survey in promotional sites, such as places of work, places of education and other NHS Trusts.
This survey will help to develop a measure for e-cigarette use as well as help to come up with new research questions.
REC name
West Midlands - Edgbaston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
26/WM/0066
Date of REC Opinion
17 Jun 2026
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion