E-cigs replacing smoking cessation services

Northern Ireland’s leading health charity, Northern Ireland Chest Heart and Stroke has called on the Department of Health to review the actions it is taking to combat smoking.

“Much has been achieved but sadly the numbers of smokers in Northern Ireland remains stubbornly high - particularly in the less well off parts of Northern Ireland. Nearly one in four of the population in NI smokes and that rate has barely fallen in recent years.”

Neil Johnston, Public Affairs Adviser for the charity, was speaking after it was revealed that the number of people accessing smoking cessation services has plummeted.

The Department of Health has published figures relating to smoking cessation services for 2016/17.

A total of 18,637 people set a quit date through those services in 2016/17. That's a decrease of 2,648 (12%) on the previous year. There has been an overall decline in the number of people accessing smoking cessation services over the last five years, from a high of 39,204 in 2011/12.

The Stats:

• Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) was the most popular therapeutic intervention, with 73% of those who set a quit date having used this therapy.
• At the four-week follow-up 10,872 reported that they had successfully quit, around three-fifths (58%) of those setting a quit date.
• The four-week success rate was 60% for males and 57% for females.
• Of the 235 young people (aged 11 to 17) who set a quit date, 40% reported to have successfully quit at the four-week follow-up, 37% indicated that they were still smoking, and 23% could not be contacted for the follow-up.
• Success at four weeks increased with age, from 40% for those aged 11 to 17, to 64% for those aged 60 and over.
• Of the 18,373 adults who set a quit date, a third (32%) were from the most deprived quintile and a further quarter (24%) from the second most deprived quintile.
• One in 10 (9%) were from the least deprived quintile. The four-week success rate was 57% for those in the most deprived quintile compared with 63% in the least deprived quintile.
• Mirroring the overall pattern, 37% of the 1,025 women who were recorded as being pregnant were from the most deprived quintile compared with 7% from the least deprived quintile.
• At the four-week follow-up, 61% of pregnant women reported to have successfully quit, 24% had not quit, and 15% were not able to be contacted.
• At the 52-week follow-up of those that had quit at four weeks in 2015/16, over a third (36%) reported still being tobacco free, while a quarter (26%) had resumed smoking, and a further 38% could not be contacted.

Neil Johnston from NI Chest, Heart and Stroke says those figures should make the Department of Health look at the services they are offering.

“The number using the services and setting a quit date has fallen from 39,000 in 2011 to just 18,000 this year – however during the same period the use of e- cigarettes has increased enormously so it may be that smokers are simply using a different route to try to break their addiction.”

“The fall off in use of cessation services is almost entirely in the 18-34 age bracket and it is probably these people who have decided to try e-cigarettes.”

Mr Johnston went on to point out that to date there was no conclusive evidence that e –cigarettes were an effective way to quit smoking and little is known about the long term health effects.

“We recognise people are keen to give up smoking but we would point out that e –cigarettes contain nicotine and are highly addictive and we would recommend that they are used only as a short term measure.”

“One area of success has been with school children – the numbers smoking have fallen markedly. We should build on that success and we would urge the Department to increase the resources spent combating smoking amongst school children.”

“We know that over 80% of smokers start smoking in their teens and we know there is a particular problem in disadvantaged areas so perhaps shifting resources from cessation services towards increasing targeted prevention activity in schools and disadvantaged communities would be more effective?"

• Smoking
• e-cigs