Evaluation of a pharmacy supported e- cigarette smoking cessation intervention in North West England

Coffey, M; Houston, L; Cook, PA; Price, Alan

Abstract

Background: Cigarette smoking cessation has been described as the world’s most important public health intervention. Electronic cigarettes are a relatively new tool for assisting smoking cessation but there is a lack of data on their efficacy. This article reports on a pharmacy supported e-cigarette smoking cessation intervention undertaken in a metropolitan area in the north of England.
Methods: Longitudinal mixed-methods evaluation incorporating analysis of secondary data, interviews with service users, and interviews with service providers at 3-month and 12-month follow-up, with an additional text message survey of service users at 12-month follow-up.
Results: The four-week follow-up data suggest that for every twenty people given an e-cigarette, six quit smoking tobacco and three people cut their cigarette intake by more than five cigarettes per day. Long-term follow-up results were positive but only a small number of participants were still engaged with the study at 12 months. Service users and providers spoke positively about the combination of e-cigarettes and pharmacy support.
Conclusions: E-cigarette distribution combined with pharmacy support appears to be an agreeable and effective intervention for smoking cessation, but further data are needed on long-term quit rates and health effects.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 9, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Jul 12, 2022
• Publication Date: Jul 12, 2022
• Deposit Date: Jul 1, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 26, 2022
• Journal: BMC Public Health
• Electronic ISSN: 1471-2458
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Volume: 22
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 1326
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13711-x
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13711-x