Lothian bucks national trend as more smokers quit habit

Published on Tuesday 25 March 2008 13:02

MORE people are successfully quitting smoking in the Lothians, despite a fall nationally, new figures revealed today.

The statistics were released the day before the second anniversary of the ban on smoking in public places coming into effect.

They show there has been a slight rise in the number of smokers quitting in the Lothians last year, compared to a fall across the whole of Scotland. The number of smokers who had successfully quit a month later rose from 34 per cent to 40 per cent.

The figures are based on information from the national smoking cessation database. They show January was the most popular month for deciding to quit last year.

NHS Lothian has introduced a wide range of measures to help people quit, including more special smoking advisors in hospitals and offering one-to-one sessions. Smokers are also offered support from their GPs and local pharmacies.

In the Lothians, smoking is responsible for around 1500 deaths every year, and almost 9000 people are admitted with smoking-related illnesses. Treating those patients costs NHS Lothian 22.6 million a year.

The new figures show 3,748 smokers tried to give up in the Lothians, or 2.7 per cent of all smokers. Of these, 40 per cent said they had successfully quit after a month.

This is a rise of about 1 per cent on last year's figure of 3717. But health experts say last year's figure was exceptionally high as a result of the smoking ban, and the continued rise is "encouraging news".

This compares to 3.9 per cent of smokers who attempted to quit the habit in Scotland as a whole. This figure has fallen from 4.4 per cent in 2006.

A spokeswoman for ISD, which published the report, said: "There was a very distinct peak in March 2006 and anecdotal evidence reported an increase in people accessing services around the time of the smoking ban. We can categorically say that 2006 was higher than normal.

"But the numbers quitting in the Lothians are pretty similar to last year, which is very encouraging news."

The highest success rates among those trying to give up smoking were in the Forth Valley, Lanarkshire and Shetland NHS areas. In the Forth Valley area 65 per cent of those who tried to give up were still not smoking after one month. In the Lanarkshire area 51 per cent of quitters were not smoking after one month.

Sheila Duffy, chief executive of the anti-smoking group ASH Scotland welcomed the news, saying the smoking ban had been very well received.

She said: "Two years on from the ban on smoking in public places, we know that compliance is high and support for the legislation remains high.

"The fact that people are continuing to quit smoking is good for the health of the smoker and those around them. Giving up smoking has immediate and long term benefits for all smokers at any age and figures indicate that smoking cessation services are saving lives at a cost of around 800 per life-year saved – a highly cost-effective, life-saving treatment."