Health analysed the effectiveness of the month-long abstinence
programme.
Almost 20,000 Stoptober participants took part in a survey, where
after three months, 71.8 percent of quitters had stayed smoke-free.
The researchers found that Stoptober had positive implications
beyond initiating thousands of quit attempts.
They wrote:
“We found favourable changes in attitude towards cessation-related
stress, social norms, social pressure to smoke, self-effi cacy to quit,
smoking habit strength and smoker identity.”
PHE’s Strategy 2020-2025 published in September shed some light
on its ambitious vision to further reduce the one-in-six UK deaths
currently attributed to smoking.
Key to this is narrowing the health gap and reducing inequalities
between the most and least deprived communities.
PHE’s research revealed a 19.3 percent gap in smoking rates between
the two groups (27.2 percent vs 7.9 percent.)
Jo Churchill, parliamentary under secretary of state for prevention,
public health and primary care, addressed this ahead of this year’s
campaign:
“Thanks to our tough action on tobacco, smoking rates are falling
“We’ve still got a way to go
to achieve our ambition of
a smoke-free society”
faster than in years – presenting us with the real opportunity for a
smoke-free society by 2030.
“Despite this progress, smoking persists in some areas, often those
with other challenges and unfortunately remains the single biggest
preventable cause of premature death.”
While UK smoking prevalence is at an all-time low, a cohort of UK
adults continue to use combustible cigarettes and the recent attacks
on the most-successful quit method threaten to slow progress.
Stoptober and PHE’s pro-vaping messages are essential in
fighting the tide of misinformation and converting the stubborn
smokers for good.
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