More smokers aiming to quit

19th January 2012 - A total of 378,724 smokers in England set a date to kick the habit in the six months to September last year, according to the latest figures.

The number of people naming a day to quit through NHS Stop Smoking Services was a 3% increase on the previous year and a 7% rise on the same April to September period for 2009.

The figures from the NHS Information Centre are subject to confirmation in the summer. However, the Centre said that confirmed numbers were likely to show an increase in the number of people giving up.

The provisional figures show that four weeks later, 178,986 of those who had set a quit date (47%) were still not smoking - an increase of 2% on the final figure in the same period in 2010.

Older smokers were more likely to have given up than their younger counterparts, the statistics reveal. Success at the four week follow-up ranged from 30% of young smokers under the age of 18 to 55% among those aged 60 and over.

More women than men set a quit date in the six month period. A total of 200,710 women announced they were stopping smoking, compared with 178,014 men. However, a larger proportion of men said they had been successful after four weeks (49%), compared with women (46%).

Of the 12,379 pregnant women who set a quit date, 5,318 were still not smoking at the four week follow-up (43%), the figures show.

Quit smoking methods

Smokers used a variety of methods to help them stop smoking:

• 64% used only Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT)
• 26% used the prescription-only medicationvarenicline (Champix)
• 1% used prescription-only bupropion (Zyban)
• 2% received both NRT and varenicline
• Less than 1% received both NRT and bupropion
• 4% of people did not receive any medication or treatment

Varenicline was the most successful medication in helping people quit, with 59% of those taking it still not smoking after four weeks compared with 52% who received only bupropion, 43% who received NRT, and 47% who did not use any treatment or medication.

Total expenditure on NHS Stop Smoking Services in England was £41.4 million, an increase of 2% (£1.0 million) on the final figure for the same period in 2010/11.

Commenting on the provisional figures, Amanda Sandford, research manager for Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) told BootsWebMD: "The rise in the number of successful quitters is heartening and shows the value of providing specialist services to smokers who want to quit.  Stopping smoking is never easy but with professional support, people can and do overcome their nicotine addiction."