Smoking-related deaths can be reduced if people attending lung cancer screening are offered stop-smoking support, a study has suggested.
Research has found that, by offering stop-smoking support as part of the NHS national lung cancer screening programme, there is potential to save lives. It has as a result called for dedicated funding for this to be considered by policy-makers.
The study, published in the European Respiratory Journal, showed that offering stop-smoking support at the same time and in the same place as lung screening resulted in a high uptake of support across a range of demographics.
This, in turn, had the potential to reduce smoking-related illness and death in a high-risk group of the population and therefore greater dedicated funding for such services should be considered.
The research was led by Professor Rachael Murray from the School of Medicine at the University of Nottingham and was carried out as part of the Yorkshire Lung Screening Trial. This is being led by Professor Matthew Callister and delivered in partnership with Leeds Teaching Hospitals and the University of Leeds. The study was funded by Yorkshire Cancer Research.
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Up to half of people who attend for lung cancer screening currently smoke, they found. Offering them support to quit at the time of attendance was therefore an ideal opportunity to maximise the chance of successfully quitting.
In the study, researchers offered 2,150 smokers who attended a lung cancer screening programme the opportunity to speak with a specialist stop-smoking advisor.
A total of 89% accepted the offer and 75% chose to accept ongoing weekly support. Men were less likely to engage than women, however.
Those who were more dependent on nicotine were more motivated to stop smoking, more confident in their ability to stop smoking successfully, and were subsequently more likely to take up the offer of support, the researchers found.
Overall, 323 people reported not smoking at four weeks (15% of all those attending screening who were eligible to receive stop-smoking support). A total of 266 of these provided a breath sample that showed they had indeed stopped smoking.
Once they engaged, men were more likely to stop smoking, along with those who were more motivated to stop and had attempted to stop smoking in the past. Those who smoked more cigarettes per day were less likely to successfully stop.
Professor Murray said: “The high uptake of smoking cessation support and promising quit rates reported across a range of participant demographics indicates that adding stop smoking support as an integrated part of the national lung cancer screening programme has the potential to reduce all-cause smoking-related morbidity and mortality.
“Protected, dedicated funding must be considered by policy makers in order to ensure the national screening programme realises its’ full potential,” she added.
Separately, research has suggested that there appears to have been a rise in the proportion of middle class and wealthier women under the age of 45 smoking in England.
A study from a research team at University College London found the percentage of women in this group who smoked rose from 12% to 15% between 2013-2023. Every month from 2013-23, a different 1,700 adults were surveyed, including a total of 44,000 women aged under 45.
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Less advantaged women were more likely to smoke overall but smoking rates in this group fell from 29% to 22%.
The findings from both studies have come as MPs this week backed a plan to ban anyone born after 2009 from buying cigarettes.
