Pandemic saw less people in Wiltshire trying to stop smoking
Wiltshire Council saw smoke free services used a fifth less during Covid
The number of adults using smoke free services in Wiltshire dropped by 21% during the pandemic, we can reveal.
And the rate of people quitting also dropped by 3% in the county.
It follows a study by experts at University College London (UCL), who found smoking prevalence fell by just 0.3% per year across the UK during the pandemic, having previously been 5.2%.
A public health specialist at Wiltshire Council has explained to us what caused the drop in quit rates among smokers.
"Public facing services had to change their way they operate, especially our smoke free support," says Gemma Dummett.
She added: "Prior to the pandemic, smoke Free Services had run face to face and had to change to a new way of working."
Gemma told us that the council are aware there had been trouble in people accessing smoke free services in the switch to working virtually, while health coaches in the Wiltshire Health Improvement Hub struggled to get the same engagement as in a face-to-face environment.
Non-pandemic influences
It's also suspected that factors outside of the pandemic also had an influence on less people quitting smoking.
Gemma told us that a medication, called Champix, was stopped in June 2021.
"a lot of people found this medication to be beneficial to their smoke free journey, and this lack of medication could have been a factor that influenced (less people in quitting)."
It was suggested in the UCL study that home working may have also been an important factor.
Researchers said: "manual jobs were less disrupted through the pandemic, whereas many non-manual jobs switched to home working, leading to loneliness and poorer mental health, which may have made people in more advantaged social grades less inclined to try to stop smoking."
Quit levels bouncing back post-pandemic
However, since the pandemic, the number of people stopping smoking in Wiltshire has increased.
In 2017, council data showed 14% of adults in the county were smokers. But by 2022, despite the pandemic, that number has dropped to 10.2%, which equates to around 52,000 people.
Smoking is estimated to kill 500 people in Wiltshire each year, making it our leading cause of preventable death and illness.
The message from the council is 'don't give up giving up'.
"It can be hard quitting smoking," Gemma said, who says smokers are three-times more likely to quit with help from a trained professional, than willpower alone.
Gemma added: "Every time someone tries to stop smoking, they are a step closer to success, i's never too late to stop, and it's one of the most beneficial things you can do to help your health."
Gemma's advice for people who want to quit is to set a date as a target to quit by, to use smoking aids to manage cravings, list your reasons for quitting and to try and change your routine.
And to help people on their journey to quitting, there's a variety of services available in Wiltshire.
There's the Wiltshire Health Improvement Hub, which is a 12-week service providing residents with behavioural support in a group or one-to-one setting.
Specialist smoke-free midwives are based at Salisbury District Hospital who can help pregnant mothers quit before there babies are born.
And there's also the national 'swap to stop' scheme being trialled in some GP surgeries in the county.