Does using vibration reduction effect the quality of a photo?

Recently bought myself a Nikon lens, which has a vibration reduction feature and am wondering whether that effects the quality of image?

Camera motion during the exposure causes blurring of the image. Blurring also happens if the subject is a fast moving object. Camera motion can be mitigated. We use a tripod as a sturdily mount an evade camera motion. We practice bracing our body and camera so we can steady down and we add breathe control. A faster shutter speed is usually what is required. The faster shutter works but at a cost. We must compensate by upping the ISO setting or using a larger working lens aperture or a combination.

When we mount a telephoto or zoom to high magnifications, camera motion is magnified. As a rule of thumb, when hand-holding a telephoto shot, use a shutter speed like 1/focal length. Translated - if the focal length is 500mm use a minimum of 1/500 shutter speed to mitigated camera motion.

Modern lens technology and camera software can go a long way when it comes to mitigating camera motion. The anti-vibration feature you are asking about senses camera motion during the exposure and applies a tweak to mitigate. Generally these innovations are equal to two shutter speed setting. In other words, with anti-vibration on, we can slow down the shutter two notches, Say from 1/500 to 1/125 and allow this marvelous software and hardware to do the task.

In the grand scheme of things it shouldn't, but if it's turned on when you're using a tripod it can introduce blur if it thinks it detects motion and tries to compensate.

What it does is try to move one of the lens elements in response to movement of the camera and this will reduce motion blur allowing you to use a slower shutter speed.

Yes, it increases the quality of a photo that may otherwise be blurred by motion.

It won't "effect" the image quality, but it will "affect" the image quality.

If hand-holding the camera, VR will reduce motion blur caused by small movements of the camera from unsteady hands. Try shooting video while hand holding the camera with VR turned on and off (you can switch VR on/off while shooting the video). You'll see a marked improvement in image stability.

Mounted on a tripod, VR should be turned off as it could introduce motion blur due to electrical noise in the VR system. It's very slight and probably not noticeable except by pixel peepers.

The idea of any image stabilisation feature is to improve the quality by reducing the effects of hand shake.
Why would you think it would make quality worse?
By the way you actually wonder if it AFFECTS the quality, not effects!

It will lessen the blur that introduced by hand holding the camera.
It will cause problems if you try to use it when the camera is steady such as when it's on a tripod, mounted/resting on anything. Only use VR when hand holding the camera.

Vibration reduction is used to prevent camera shake when hand holding a shot, and thus reduce the blurring caused by hand holding a camera at less than optimal shutter speeds.