Kick the habit

30 October 2013
News
01 January 0001
Volume 29 · Issue 9

The number of smokers trying to quit with NHS help has fallen for the first time since 2008, new figures show. 

Today’s Statistics on NHS Stop Smoking Services: England, April 2012 – March 2013(2) report by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) shows nearly 724,200 quit dates were set with NHS Stop Smoking Services in 2012-13, an eleven per cent fall on the previous year (816,400).

The report also shows a seven per cent fall in the number of people that successfully quit from 401,0005 in 2011-12 to 373,900 in 2012-13.

Despite the number of setters and quitters falling, the overall success rate of those trying to quit with the NHS has increased from 49 per cent in 2011-12 to 52 per cent in 2012-13. The number of setters and quitters is still three times as high as in 2002-03 (234,900 setters and 124,100 quitters) when the overall success rate was 53 per cent.

Key findings in today’s annual NHS Stop Smoking Services report show that in 2012-13:

  • More women than men set a quit date (376,400 women compared with 347,800 men) although the success rate of giving up smoking altogether was slightly higher in men (53 per cent) than in women (50 per cent).

  • Success rates increased with age: one in three of those aged 18 years and under were successful quitters (34 per cent, or 6,200 out of 18,200), and for those aged 60 years and over this was almost three in five (59 per cent, or 67,000 out of 113,900).

  • East Midlands Strategic Health Authority (SHA) had the highest proportion of successful quitters (57 per cent, or 36,000 of 63,700) compared with North East SHA which reported the lowest proportion (47 per cent, or 25,000 out of 53,600).

  • Spending on NHS Stop Smoking Services was £87.7 million, £500,000 less than last year where it was £88.2 million.

  • Cost per quitter was £235, a seven per cent increase on the figure of £220 in 2011-12.

The report can be accessed at http://www.hscic.gov.uk/pubs/sssapr12mar13

The quarterly publication Statistics on NHS Stop Smoking Services: England, April to June 2013 Q1 is also published today and can be accessed at: http://www.hscic.gov.uk/pubs/sssapr12mar13. This report shows provisional data at Local Authority level.