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It is that time of year again when, after the celebrations and excesses, new resolutions are made, with losing weight and smoking cessation topping the list. Not surprisingly, January is the most popular month to stop smoking. According to analysis of smoking trends by Cancer Research UK, around one in eight UK smokers will try and give up this month.

Professor Robert West, Director of Tobacco Studies at the Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour Unit, who was involved in the analysis, also noted that many people did not know about the free support or services that were available to them. Patients can access this information via the NHS Choices ‘Go smoke free’ website,¹ which provides support, practical advice and details of free local NHS stop smoking services.

This year, NICE is set to publish further smoking cessation guidance to add to its first Public Health Intervention Guidance on brief interventions and referral for smoking cessation in primary care and other settings. Guidance on the optimal provision of smoking cessation services with particular reference to manual groups, pregnant smokers, and hard-to-reach communities is due for publication in February 2008; and recommendations on preventing the uptake of smoking by children and young people will be released in July 2008.

An increasing number of young people smoke. So what can be done to help them quit? Dr Lee Casey describes one innovative local initiative aimed at young smokers. In this case, a series of educational clinics engaged the attendees and resulted in quit rates comparable to those in adult smoking cessation schemes (click here to read article).

If you have examples of your own successful projects please do contact us.

1. gosmokefree.nhs.uk G

Julia Morris, Editor
julia.morris@mgp.ltd.uk