The NHS has released its latest figures on smoking trends. Apparently 373,964 people in the UK quit smoking in the last year. This is an 11% increase in quitters on the previous year. The British Heart Foundation has reported that the percentage of adult smokers remains high at 21% despite a consistently improving trend since the smoking ban of 2007. The NHS had put £10 million more into its anti-smoking campaigns over this last year than it contributed in the previous year. Altogether, the Government spent £84 million on these services. It is estimated that smoking costs the NHS £2.7 billion annually.
The figures convey that the most successful method used to stop smoking is Champix. 60% of its users were successful in quitting according to the report – this is significantly in excess of the percentage of successful quitters from the clinical trials relating to Champix. Only 23% of smokers choose medication in the place of nicotine gum and patches but perhaps they will revaluate their cessation methods after looking at these figures!