May 2010
NHS Smoking Cessation Service Statistics (Scotland) 1st January to 31st December 2009
Key points:
- there were 69,882 quit attempts made with the help of NHS smoking cessation services in Scotland during the 2009 calendar year. This compares with 51,621 quit attempts in 2008 (revised 2008 figures), an increase of 18,261 (or 35%)
- an estimated 6.5% of smokers in Scotland made a quit attempt with an NHS smoking cessation service during 2009 (4.8% in 2008). Pharmacy services accounted for 56% of quit attempts made.
- one month after the quit date, 38% had quit (self-reported ‘not smoked, even a puff, in the last two weeks’), 17% were still smoking and 45% were ‘lost to follow-up’/smoking status unknown.
- based on data for the 2008 calendar year, quit rates at one, three and 12 months were 39%, 17% and 7% respectively.
March 2010
Prescribing of Smoking Cessation Interventions
Key points:
- a total of 394,420 smoking cessation interventions items were prescribed in Scotland during 2009, an increase of 93,653 items (31%) on the previous calendar year
- the gross ingredient cost of the drugs has increased from £9.4 million in 2008 to £11.3 million in 2009.
70% of smokers in Scotland want to quit yet until recently there were few effective support services in place to help them. The White Paper on tobacco, Smoking Kills, outlined a national smoking cessation policy for Scotland, providing local services and the provision of stop smoking aids such as Zyban and Nicotine Replacement Therapy. The NHS in Scotland spends an estimated £140 million on hospital treatment for diseases caused by smoking. Helping smokers to quit is a highly cost effective public health measure. ASH Scotland believes all proven treatments which help smokers to quit should be freely available on the NHS in Scotland
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