Statistics on Smoking Cessation services in Northern Ireland: 4 Week follow up figures for 2024/25, and 52 week follow up figures for 2023/24
Date published:
The Department of Health today published statistical tables relating to smoking cessation services for 2024/25.
The statistical tables provide 4-week follow-up information on people reporting to smoking cessation services during the year 2024/25, in addition to figures for the 52-week follow-up of people who signed up to the programme in 2023/24.
Key Findings
- Information on people accessing smoking cessation services is supplied to the Public Health Agency by providers of the service. In 2024/25, a total of 9,587 people were reported to have set a quit date through the smoking cessation services in Northern Ireland. This is an increase of 391 (4%) on the previous year.
- The number of people reported to have set a quit date remains lower than a decade ago when 21,285 people did so in 2015/16. Cigarette smoking prevalence has also fallen over a similar time period from 23% in 2015/16 to 13% in 2023/24 (source: Health Survey Northern Ireland).
- Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) was the most popular therapeutic intervention, with 70% of those who set a quit date having used this therapy.
- At the 4-week follow-up 5,631 people (59% of those setting a quit date) reported that they had successfully quit, 19% had not quit and 23% could not be contacted for the follow-up.
- The 4-week success rate was 59% for males and 58% for females.
- Around a third (31%) of the 9,521 adults who set a quit date were from the most deprived quintile while a further quarter (24%) were from the second most deprived quintile. This compares with one in ten (10%) from the least deprived quintile. The 4-week success rate was similar for those in the most deprived quintile (56%) and those in the least deprived quintile (57%).
- Of the 558 women who were recorded as being pregnant, 29% were from the most deprived quintile compared with 10% from the least deprived quintile. At the 4-week follow-up, 74% of pregnant women reported to have successfully quit, 16% had not quit, and 10% were not able to be contacted.
- At the 52-week follow-up of those that had quit at 4 weeks in 2023/24, around two-fifths (38%) reported still being tobacco free, while around a quarter (23%) had resumed smoking, and a further 39% could not be contacted.
Notes to editors:
- This information is supplied to the Public Health Agency by providers of smoking cessation services (e.g. pharmacist, GP, nurse). The Department of Health receives a copy of the validated dataset from the Public Health Agency.
- The statistics are based on information collected in the smoking cessation database (SCD). The SCD is the source of official statistics on persons setting a quit date through smoking cessation services in Northern Ireland. The data is supplied by providers of smoking cessation services, e.g. pharmacists, GPs, nurses.
- Notes relating to the statistics release are detailed below:
Please note that there were 27 individuals enrolled at a Northern Health & Social Care Trust Stop Smoking Service in 2024/25 that have not been recorded on the SCD and are thus excluded from these statistics.
- Brief interventions by General Practitioners (GPs) and other health professionals. These will be provided in the normal course of the professional’s duties rather than comprising a ‘new’ service, and monitoring information about clients in receipt of such interventions is not therefore required centrally. Thus, this information is not captured in this release.
- Specialist smoking cessation services run by smoking cessation specialist(s) who have received training for this role. The service will be evidence based and offer intensive treatment, usually in the form of one-to-one or group support up to 12 weeks, including the use of Nicotine Replacement Therapy. Such a service may be situated in a major hospital or clinic, although it could be based in a community setting, have outreach clinics or operate on a peripatetic basis.
- Quit date. It is recognised that in certain cases some time may need to be spent with clients before they are ready to set a quit date. However, only actual quit attempts are counted for monitoring purposes.
- Success. On the basis that the clinical viewpoint tends to be that a client should not be counted as a ‘failure’ if he/she has smoked in the difficult first days after the quit date, a client is counted as having successfully quit smoking if he/she has not smoked at all since two weeks after the quit date.
- Four-week and 52-week follow-up. All clients should be followed up at four weeks and those who self-report as having quit at this stage should be followed up again at 52 weeks.
3. This publication is available online at:
https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/articles/tobacco-statistics
4. Additional information is available from:
Public Health Information and Research Branch
Information and Analysis Directorate
Department of Health
Annexe 2
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Stormont
Belfast BT4 3SQ
Telephone: 028 9052 2340
E-mail: PHIRB@health-ni.gov.uk
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