UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Prevalence of use and real-world effectiveness of smoking cessation aids during the Covid-19 pandemic: a representative study of smokers in England

Jackson, Sarah E; Cox, Sharon; Shahab, Lion; Brown, Jamie; (2022) Prevalence of use and real-world effectiveness of smoking cessation aids during the Covid-19 pandemic: a representative study of smokers in England. Addiction , 117 (9) pp. 2504-2514. 10.1111/add.15903. Green open access

[thumbnail of Jackson_Addiction - 2022 - Jackson - Prevalence of use and real‐world effectiveness of smoking cessation aids during the COVID‐19.pdf]
Preview
Text
Jackson_Addiction - 2022 - Jackson - Prevalence of use and real‐world effectiveness of smoking cessation aids during the COVID‐19.pdf

Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

AIM: To measure whether the prevalence of use and real-world effectiveness of different smoking cessation aids has changed in England since the Covid-19 pandemic. DESIGN: Representative monthly cross-sectional surveys, January 2015-June 2021. SETTING: England. PARTICIPANTS: 7,300 adults (≥18y) who had smoked within the previous 12 months and had made ≥1 quit attempt during that period. MEASUREMENTS: The independent variable was the timing of the Covid-19 pandemic (pre-pandemic [January 2015-February 2020] vs. pandemic [April 2020-June 2021]). We analysed (i) the association between the pandemic period and self-reported use (vs. non-use) during the most recent quit attempt of: prescription medication (nicotine replacement therapy [NRT]/varenicline/bupropion), NRT bought over-the-counter, e-cigarettes, traditional behavioural support, and traditional remote support (telephone support/written self-help materials/websites) and (ii) the interaction between the pandemic period and use of these cessation aids on self-reported abstinence from quit date to survey. Covariates included age, sex, social grade, level of cigarette addiction, and characteristics related to the quit attempt. FINDINGS: After adjustment for secular trends, there was a significant increase from the pre-pandemic to pandemic period in the prevalence of use of traditional remote support by past-year smokers in a quit attempt (odds ratio[OR]=2.18[95% confidence interval 1.42-3.33]); specifically telephone support (OR=7.16[2.19-23.45]) and websites (OR=2.39[1.41-4.08]). There was also an increase in the prevalence of use of prescription medication (OR=1.47[1.08-2.00]); specifically varenicline (OR=1.66[1.09-2.52]). There were no significant changes in prevalence of use of other cessation aids after adjustment for secular trends. People who reported using prescription medication (OR=1.41[1.09-1.84]) and e-cigarettes (OR=1.87[1.62-2.16]) had greater odds of reporting abstinence than people who did not. There were no significant interactions between the pandemic period and use of any cessation aid on abstinence, after adjustment for covariates and use of the other aids, although data were insensitive to distinguish no change from meaningful modest (OR=1.34) effects (Bayes factors 0.72-1.98). CONCLUSIONS: In England, the Covid-19 pandemic was associated with an increase in use of remote support for smoking cessation and varenicline by smokers in a quit attempt up to June 2021. The data were inconclusive regarding an association between the pandemic and changes in the real-world effectiveness of popular smoking cessation aids.

Type: Article
Title: Prevalence of use and real-world effectiveness of smoking cessation aids during the Covid-19 pandemic: a representative study of smokers in England
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1111/add.15903
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1111/add.15903
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Addiction published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society for the Study of Addiction. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords: Covid-19, behavioural support, e-cigarettes, effectiveness, nicotine replacement therapy, quit attempts, smoking cessation, varenicline
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Behavioural Science and Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10148122
Downloads since deposit
10Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item