Smoking cessation

The Scottish Public Health Observatory has estimated that a one per cent reduction in smoking prevalence would save around 540 lives a year; reduce smoking-attributable hospital admissions by around 2,300; and reduce estimated NHS spending on smoking-related illness by between £13 million and £21 million.
(ScotPHO Smoking Ready Reckoner – 2011 Edition (June 2012))

13 October 2015

Prescribing of Smoking Cessation Products in Scotland Financial Years 2005/06–2014/15

Key points:

2014/15 was the second consecutive year that dispensing of smoking cessation products decreased since 2006/07. There were 169,967 (31.1%) fewer dispensed items in 2014/15 compared to 2013/14
The total cost of smoking cessation items in 2014/15 was £8,057,216, which was a decrease of £4,169,659 (34.1%) from last year. This was the second consecutive year the total cost had decreased since it peaked in 2012/13
The overall average cost per item has decreased year on year since 2007, and reached its lowest point (£21.36) in the ten years covered in this report in 2014/15, down from £22.35 in the previous financial year
All boards showed a decrease in the number of dispensed items per 1,000 of the population for smoking cessation products dispensed in 2014/15 compared to 2013/14. The Scottish average decreased by 34.6% in this time period
For the first time six NHS Boards have seen the number of items per 1,000 of the population fall below the levels seen in 2008/09, the year in which smoking cessation services were introduced in Scottish community pharmacies.

Source: ISD Scotland. Prescribing of smoking cessation products in Scotland financial years 2005/06–2014/15. 13 October 2015. Available from: http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Prescribing-and-medicines/Publications/index.asp#1496 [Accessed 19 October 2015]

06 October 2015

NHS Smoking Cessation Service Statistics (Scotland) 1st April 2014 to 31st March 2015

Key points:

Over all in Scotland in 2014/15:

There were 66,756 quit attempts made with the help of NHS smoking cessation services. One in five (12,692) were still not smoking at three months, a ‘quit rate’ of 19%;

Of all these quit attempts, 60% were made in the most deprived areas in Scotland;

In the most deprived areas in Scotland in 2014/15:

Only one of the 14 NHS Boards in Scotland (NHS Shetland) met their smoking cessation HEAT target;
Of 39,746 quit attempts, 7,017 were still not smoking at 3 months, a ‘quit rate’ of 18%, similar to the overall Scotland quit rate;
This represents 58% of the HEAT target of around 12,000 three month quits in the most deprived areas.

Source: ISD Scotland. NHS Smoking Cessation Service Statistics (Scotland) 1st April 2014 to 31st March 2015. 06 October 2015. Available from: http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Public-Health/Publications/index.asp#1488 [Accessed 06 October 2015]

22 September 2015

Scottish Health Survey 2014

Key points:

In 2014, two-thirds (67%) of smokers said they would like to quit smoking
frequency of attempts to quit showed 21% of all smokers hvaing made no attempts, 37% one or two and 43% at least three attempts
patterns by age showed a link between the length of time someone has smoked and the number of quit attempts, with smokers from the age of 35 onwards the most likely to have made three or more unsuccessful quit attempts
just under two-thirds (64%) of recent ex-smokers and current smokers who had attempted to quit said they used a nicotine replacement therapy product or e-cigarettes in the previous three months. Use of products to support a quit attempt was significantly higher for women (67%) than men (60%), and also higher among those aged 18-64 (64-68%) than those aged 65 and over (50%)
the most common items used as part of a recent quit attempt were nicotine patches (36%) and e-cigarettes (32%)
over a third (36%) of people who had used a product as part of a recent quit attempt had also used smoking cessation services, moist commonly pharmacies (18%), specialist cessation advisers (9%) and GPs (7%)

Source: Scottish Government. Scotland's people annual report: results from 2014 Scottish Household Survey. 2015. Available from: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/08/3720

05 June 2013: New guidance, Tobacco: harm-reduction approaches to smoking: guidance, from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence recommends that licensed nicotine products, such as patches and gum, should be offered to people who smoke and are struggling to quit to help them cut down on cigarettes.

67% of smokers in Scotland want to quit yet until fairly 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

A guide to smoking cessation in Scotland 2010 (published 13 September 2010 - updated March 14)
Helping smokers to stop: Brief interventions, Planning and providing specialist smoking cessation services, Brief interventions flowchart and (from March 2014) an addendum containing recommendations on tobacco harm-reduction approaches.
Recommendations for the future development of Scottish smoking cessation services: data collection, monitoring & evaluating, information management and essential resources
National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) Public Health Programme Guidance (NHS UK)
Smoking cessation services in primary care, pharmacies, local authorities and workplaces, particularly for manual working groups, pregnant women and hard to reach communities (February 2008)

Useful links

ScotPHO Smoking Ready Reckoner – 2011 Edition (June 2012)
The purpose of the Scottish Public Health Observatory Smoking Ready Reckoner is to show the potential effect of reduced smoking prevalence on three outcomes:
smoking-attributable deaths; smoking attributable hospital admissions;
smoking-attributable NHS costs.
Nicotine receptor partial agonists for smoking cessation - accessible version of April 2012 Cochrane Review, with links to podcast, discussion points and related resources
Latest research on smoking cessation (updated weekly)
Quit4U Evaluation: the key findings from an independent evaluation of quit4u, a two-year Scottish Government-sponsored national pilot smoking cessation scheme developed and led by NHS Tayside.
The UK White Paper on tobacco, Smoking Kills, has a section on cessation
All Party (UK) Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health. Inquiry into the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of tobacco control: Submission to the 2010 Spending Review and Public Health White Paper Consultation process
When it comes to the UK Government’s investment in tobacco control, the answer to the key Spending Review questions is clear. This activity is essential to meet the Government’s public health priorities. Furthermore the Government needs to fund this activity, indeed it is in its interest to do so as it provides substantial economic value and a positive return on investment. Cutting back on expenditure in this area would almost certainly result in net revenue losses rather than gains to the Exchequer.
The effectiveness of NHS smoking cessation services: a systematic review (July 2009)