Statistics on smoking cessation services In Northern Ireland: Four week follow up figures for 2016/17 and 52 week follow up figures for 2015/16

The Department of Health today published statistical tables relating to smoking cessation services for 2016/17.

The statistical tables provide four-week follow-up information on people reporting to smoking cessation services during the year 2016/17, in addition to figures for the 52-week follow up of people who signed up to the programme in 2015/16.

Key Findings

• A total of 18,637 people set a quit date through the smoking cessation services in 2016/17. This is a decrease of 2,648 (12%) on the previous year. There has been a decline in the number of people accessing smoking cessation services over the last five years, from a high of 39,204 in 2011/12.
• Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) was the most popular therapeutic intervention, with 73% of those who set a quit date having used this therapy.
• At the four-week follow-up 10,872 reported that they had successfully quit, around three-fifths (58%) of those setting a quit date.
• The four-week success rate was 60% for males and 57% for females.
• Of the 235 young people (aged 11 to 17) who set a quit date, 40% reported to have successfully quit at the four-week follow-up, 37% indicated that they were still smoking, and 23% could not be contacted for the follow-up.
• Success at four weeks increased with age, from 40% for those aged 11 to 17, to 64% for those aged 60 and over.
• Of the 18,373 adults who set a quit date, a third (32%) were from the most deprived quintile and a further quarter (24%) from the second most deprived quintile. One in 10 (9%) were from the least deprived quintile. The four-week success rate was 57% for those in the most deprived quintile compared with 63% in the least deprived quintile.
• Mirroring the overall pattern, 37% of the 1,025 women who were recorded as being pregnant were from the most deprived quintile compared with 7% from the least deprived quintile. At the four-week follow-up, 61% of pregnant women reported to have successfully quit, 24% had not quit, and 15% were not able to be contacted.
• At the 52-week follow-up of those that had quit at four weeks in 2015/16, over a third (36%) reported still being tobacco free, while a quarter (26%) had resumed smoking, and a further 38% could not be contacted.

Notes to editors: 

1. This information is supplied to the Department of Health and the Public Health Agency by providers of smoking cessation services (e.g. pharmacist, GP, nurse).
2. Definitions relating to the statistics release are detailed below:
   • 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 bulletin.
   • 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 over the course of five to six 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.
   • 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.
4. Additional information is available from:

   Public Health Information and Research Branch
   Information and Analysis Directorate
   Department of Health
   Annex 2
   Castle Buildings
   Stormont
   Belfast
   BT4 3SQ

   Telephone:   028 9052 0035

   E-mail: phirb@health-ni.gov.uk

5.  For media enquiries please contact the DoH Press Office on 028 9052 0074. Out of office hours, contact the EIS Duty Press Officer on pager 07623 974 383 and your call will be returned.   

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