On Friday, January 19th, the kick-off meeting of the new CoEHAR project – “MAGNIFICAT” will take place at the UNA Palace Hotel in Catania.
The MAGNIFICAT study, strongly advocated by Prof. Riccardo Polosa, aims to investigate the effects of the combined use of conventional cigarettes and electronic cigarettes on human health.
The project, entitled “MAGNIFICAT: MAGnitude of cigarette substitutioN after Initiation oF e-cigarettes and its Impact on biomArkers of exposure and potenTial harm in dual users” is in collaboration with Polish, German and British partners, as well as supported by world-class behavioral psychology expert from USA. It aims to investigate the impact of the combined use of conventional and electronic cigarettes (dual use) on human health.
Many smokers despite switching to e-cigarettes as support for quitting, continue to smoke conventional cigarettes. The impact of dual use on health remains uncertain and is a topic of great interest also from CoEHAR side.
MAGNIFICAT intends to quantify this impact by collecting samples, researching and describing the core of different levels of dual use on exposure to toxic substances and harm reduction, using specific biomarkers, clinical endpoints, and behavioral correlations. The study will involve 250 smokers in the intervention group, who will like to reduce the consumption of conventional cigarettes by switching to the electronic cigarettes, and 50 smokers in the control group, who will remain by their habit – smoking conventional cigarettes. Biomarkers, clinical endpoints, and behavioral aspects (including through the use of a dedicated eDiary app) will be evaluated during the 6 months following enrollment.
Dual users will be divided into two groups: participants will be asked to reduce the consumption of conventional cigarette es and switch to electronic cigarettes for a controlled period. This mid-term, cohort study will be first one, which conducts multispectral and in-depth collection of various markers, biomarkers, observations delivering novelty and uncommon knowledge to the world of science, helping in understanding the processes connected to dual use smoking habits.
The results of the study will also be of great interest in addressing questions related to smoking harm reduction in both clinical and behavioral contexts.
Kick-off meeting – AGENDA
