Fewer people tried to quit smoking during COVID-19 pandemic, study reveals

According to a recent American Cancer Society (ACS) study, fewer individuals attempted to stop smoking in the United States following the commencement of COVID-19, and the pattern remained for more than a year.

People who had disproportionately bad outcomes during COVID-19, such as Black those, people with comorbidities, people in their middle ages, and people with less education, had the biggest decreases in efforts to quit smoking. The findings were published today in the American Medical Association’s JAMA Network Open publication.

“Smoking cessation is an urgent public health priority given that smoking is associated with an increased risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes and at least 12 cancers,” said Dr. Priti Bandi, principal scientist, risk factors and screening surveillance research at the American Cancer Society and lead author of the study.

“It is essential to re-engage persons who smoke in serious attempts to quit smoking, considering a typical smoker tries to quit on average six times before being successful.”

From 2011 to 2020, researchers examined data from the nationally representative Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey on over 800,000 persons who had smoked in the preceding year. Representative NielsenIQ retail scanner sales data for 1004 unique nicotine replacement treatment (NRT) universal product codes were also utilised between January 2017 and July 2021 in 31 American states.

Also Read: Don’t panic: Union Health Minister’s advise citizens for Monkeypox

According to the statistics, the yearly prevalence of recent quit attempts among American smokers fell for the first time since 2011–from 65.2 percent in 2019 to 63.2 percent in 2020. The prevalence of quit attempts began to fall in the first quarter of 2020 and continued to fall throughout the year.

Declines started as soon as COVID-19 (which started in April 2020) started, and they continued through the first quarter of 2021.

Dr William Dahut, chief scientific officer at the American Cancer Society, said, “These results remind us how crucial it is for clinicians and healthcare systems to support persons who smoke with evidence-based quitting strategies.” Such initiatives must pay special attention to those who have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, such as Black people, people in their middle years, people with comorbid conditions, and people with less education.

According to Lisa Lacasse, president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), an advocacy arm of the ACS, “Tobacco is the number one, preventable cause of cancer and is responsible for up to one-third of all cancer deaths.”

“We must exert every effort to ensure that people trying to quit tobacco have access to the cessation services they require because we are aware that it is not simple to do so. We can assist more people in quitting and aid in the reduction of cancer disparities brought on by this deadly product by ensuring Medicaid programs in every state pay for all FDA-approved cessation treatments and services and that state tobacco prevention and cessation programs receive adequate funding.”

Follow Medically Speaking on Twitter Instagram Facebook