DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, SOCIAL SERVICES AND PUBLIC SAFETY

18 December 2007

STATISTICS ON SMOKING CESSATION SERVICES IN NORTHERN IRELAND: 1 APRIL 2006 – 31 MARCH 2007

The Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety has published statistics relating to the smoking cessation services for 2006/07.

The information released provides a statistical examination of the people reporting to the smoking cessation services throughout Northern Ireland during the year 2006/07.

Summary
In Northern Ireland during 2006/07:

• 13,795 people set a quit date through the smoking cessation services. This is an increase of 5,093 (59%) on the figure for the same period last year.

• Of those setting a quit date, 2% were under 18 years of age, 28% were aged 18-34, 23% were aged 35-44, 29% were aged 45-59, and 17% were aged 60 and over.

• The majority of people received Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) or bupropion (Zyban). 74% received NRT only, 1% received bupropion only, and less than 1% received both NRT and bupropion.

• At the 4 week follow-up 7,150 had successfully quit (based on self-report), 52% of those setting a quit date. This is an increase of 5 percentage points on the figure of the previous year.

NOTES:

1. This information is collected via the four Health & Social Services Boards who submit data to the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety.

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.

• 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 5 to 6 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 & 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.

• Carbon monoxide (CO) validation: CO monitoring is carried out with clients of the specialist cessation services who self-report as not having smoked since two weeks after the quit date, at both the four week and 52 week stages.

3. This publication is available online at:
http://www.dhsspsni.gov.uk/index/stats_research/public_health/statistics-and-research-smoking-cessation.htm