NHS helps more smokers than ever before to kick the habit, says new report

NHS Stop Smoking Services helped more smokers than ever before to quit during 2009/10, says a report out today from The NHS Information Centre.

At the four-week follow-up stage, 373,954 people reported that they had successfully kicked the habit during the year – 49 per cent of the 757,537 people who used the services during the year.

This was an 11 per cent increase on 2008/09 when 337,054 successfully quit and the highest number ever recorded in a year for the service.

The report also shows:

  • Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) alone was the most commonly used method of support for those attempting to quit – used by 65 per cent of all service users. Of those who used only NRT, 47 per cent successfully quit .
  • Varenicline alone was used by 23 per cent of those setting a quit date, and of these 60 per cent successfully quit. One per cent of people setting a quit date used Bupropion, and of these 50 per cent successfully quit1.
  • Those who did not use any pharmacotherapy had a success rate of 49 per cent1.
  • More women than men set a date to quit smoking (393,805 compared to 363,732) and more of them successfully quit (189,888 compared to 184,066). But the success rate was slightly higher among men than among women (51 per cent compared to 48 per cent).
  • Of those who set a quit date, success rates generally increased with age from 32 per cent for those under 18 to 57 per cent for those aged 60 and over.
  • Of the 20,808 pregnant women who set a quit date, 9,414 or 45 per cent successfully quit - a lower than average rate for the services.

Among primary care trusts, Redbridge PCT reported the highest percentage of successful quitters (70 per cent) compared to Blackburn with Darwen PCT and Lambeth PCT where success rates were the lowest at 31 per cent.

Total expenditure on NHS Stop Smoking Services was just under £83.9 million, more than £10 million more than in 2008/09 and the cost per quitter was £224, an increase of three per cent from 2008/09 when it was £219.

A separate report also published today shows an estimated one in twenty of all admissions to hospitals among people aged 35 and over are attributable to smoking.

Statistics on Smoking: England, 2010 brings together a wide range of both previously published and new data on smoking and shows that it accounted for an estimated 462,900 hospital admissions among people over 35.

NHS Information Centre chief executive Tim Straughan said: “The report shows NHS Stop Smoking Services are helping more people than ever before to quit and that they are using a number of means of offering support, including pharmacotherapies such as nicotine replacement therapies and others.

“With smoking attributed to so many hospital admissions among those who are 35 and over, it is important that people get the support they need to quit in order to remain as healthy as possible.”

Statistics on Smoking: England, 2010 is at www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/smoking10

Statistics on NHS Stop Smoking Services: England, April 2009 – March 2010 is at www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/sss0910

ENDS

Notes to editors

  1. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care (The NHS IC) is England's authoritative, central, independent source of health and social care information. It works with a wide range of health and social care providers nationwide to provide the facts and figures that help the NHS and social services run effectively. Its role is to collect data, analyse it and convert it into useful information which helps providers improve their services and supports academics, researcher, regulators and policymakers in their work. The NHS IC also produces a wide range of statistical publications each year across a number of areas including: primary care, health and lifestyles, screening, hospital care, population and geography, social care and workforce and pay statistics.
  2. Statistics on NHS Stop Smoking Services: England, April 2009 – March 2010 presents results from the monitoring of the NHS Stop Smoking Services in England during the period April 2009 to March 2010. The report includes information on the number of people setting a quit date and the number who successfully quit at the four week follow-up. It also presents a more in depth analyses of the key measures of the service, including pregnant women, breakdowns by ethnic groups and type of pharamcotherapy received and regional analyses at Strategic Health Authority (SHA) and Primary Care Trust (PCT) levels.
  3. Statistics on Smoking: England, 2010, combines data from different sources presenting it in a user-friendly format. It contains data and information previously published by The NHS Information Centre, Department of Health, the Office for National Statistics and Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs. It also includes new analyses carried out by The NHS Information Centre. The report presents information on the prevalence of smoking in adults and children, behaviours and attitudes towards smoking, as well as estimation of the numbers smoking-related hospital admissions and smoking-related deaths in England.
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