There was a decrease in the number of people who quit smoking following NHS support in 2012/13 for the first time in four years, official statistics have shown.
New figures published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre shows showing a 7% fall in people quitting through NHS Stop Smoking Services from 400,955 people in 2011/12 to 373,872 in 2012/13.
The report, ‘Statistics on NHS Stop Smoking Services, England – April 2012 to March 2013’, also shows an 11% decrease in people setting a quit smoking date through, from 816,444 people in 2011/12 to 724,247 people in 2012/13.
Women were more successful is setting a ‘quit date’, with 376,410 women compared to 347,837 men. However, the figures also show that men had the higher success rate.
Additionally, it was found that the older age group (60+) had a higher success rate in quitting, with 59% successful compared with only 34% of people aged 18 and under.
There was a decline in the number of pregnant women who set a ‘quit date’, with 21,780 pregnant women in 2012/13 in comparison to 26,080 in 2011/12.
Complete costs on the NHS Stop Smoking services amounted to £87.7m in 2012/13 compared with £88.2m spent during 2011/2012. However, the cost per quitter rose by 7% from 2011/12 to £235 per quitter in 2012/13.
