Fruit flavoured nicotine pouches are significantly more effective than mint at helping people to quit smoking, a new study has found.
The research, published in the journal BMC Health, shows that a higher proportion of smokers who used fruit or other flavoured pouches had quit cigarettes after six months (15.4 per cent) compared to those who used mint flavoured pouches (11.6 per cent).
Mint as effective at reducing smoking - but not quitting
Mint, it said, was as effective as other flavours at helping people to reduce the number of cigarettes they smoke - but not when it came to successfully quitting.
It said: “Increased use of either fruit/other or mint flavoured study products at month six was associated with significantly increased smoking reduction, whereas only increased use of fruit/other flavours was associated with greater odds of quitting smoking among participants in the study.”
The U.S. study set out to look at the comparative effectiveness of flavoured pouches compared to mint in helping smokers to quit.
It said: “The purpose of this analysis was to understand the association between the levels of use of flavoured oral nicotine products and smoking reduction and quitting and how reduction or quitting may differ between predominant users of fruit/other versus mint flavored oral nicotine products after six months of use.”
Countries move to ban flavoured vapes
It comes as countries across the world are moving to ban fruit and other flavoured vapes in a bid to make them less appealing to children and young people. In some countries, such as New Zealand and parts of Canada, mint vapes - alongside tobacco and menthol - are still legal as they are regarded as a tool to help smokers wanting to quit.
The study monitored 1,393 adult participants and found that at month six of using pouches to quit smoking, 41.4 per cent used fruit/other flavours and 52.5 per cent used mint.
It said: “Compared to predominant mint users, predominant fruit/other users had greater cigarette reduction (mean reduction: 50.0 per cent vs. 48.4 per cent) and a higher proportion had quit smoking (proportion quit: 15.4 per cent vs. 11.6 per cent) at Month 6.
“Additionally, 38.8 per cent of predominant fruit/other users and 39.3 per cent of predominant mint users reduced their cigarette consumption by [equal to or more than] 50 per cent from Baseline.
“Increased use of fruit/other flavours was independently associated with smoking reduction.. and odds of quitting smoking. Increased use of mint flavours was independently associated with smoking reduction.. but not with odds of quitting smoking.”
Fruit and other flavours more effective for smokers
The study concluded that non-traditional flavours such as fruit are more effective than mint at helping smokers to quit.
It said: “[The] results suggest the use of non-traditional oral/smokeless tobacco flavors, such as fruit/other flavours, have an increased effect on cigarette reduction and quitting than use of traditional flavours, such as mint flavours.
“These findings are consistent with prior literature, where use of novel, flavoured TNP has been shown to facilitate smoking reduction and quitting.”
It comes after a separate study published in September by researchers at Brown University found that flavoured vapes, including fruit and sweet options, are more effective at reducing smoking than traditional tobacco flavour.
