E-cigarettes may be attracting younger people to use them instead of actual cigarettes, but the electronic devices have also carved themselves a niche for smokers and are gaining popularity.

According to MedPage Today, a European study reported just under one-fifth of smokers said they were regular electronic cigarette users. Of those 18.3 percent, 60 percent of them said the device's nicotine vapor helped them cut down on cigarettes.

The study, lead by Peter Hajek, PhD, CClinPsych, of the U.K. Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies at Queen Mary University of London, is published in the November issue of Chest.

"Together with the finding that most of the regular e-cigarette users have been using e-cigarettes daily for several months, it suggests that e-cigarettes are not just a fad likely to fade away when the novelty wears off, but that the product is developing into a genuine alternative to conventional cigarettes," Hajek and his colleagues wrote.

The study was carried out in the Czech Republic because e-cigarettes are readily available in most tobacco and general stores and because smoking rates are particularly high at 25 percent. The study authors said the survey results are nonetheless representative of many European countries.

Europe joins the U.S. and other places around the world that have struggled to figure out a way to regulate e-cigarette use. On one hand, the devices have proven to help smokers cut down on their tobacco use, but one the other, they are appealing to underage users with different flavors and particular marketing strategies.

E-cigarettes are only sold to people of age to buy regular tobacco products because they do contain nicotine, but are void of many other chemicals found in cigarettes.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Dr. Thomas Frieden told USA Today he is worried about growing trends in high school kids using e-cigarettes.

"I really worry about our kids," Frieden said. "If the next generation gets hooked, you're talking about a lifetime struggle with addiction."

According to recent CDC data, seven percent of kids in grades six through 12 have tried an e-cigarette in 2012, more than double the figure from one year before.