According to a recent study from the University of East Anglia, providing NHS vouchers for vape starter kits could help even seasoned smokers quit smoking.
In collaboration with GPs and the NHS stop smoking service, which is commissioned locally by Public Health at Norfolk County Council, researchers established a pilot vape shop voucher programme to assist patients who had previously attempted and failed to quit smoking.
The Norfolk County Council-funded programme was evaluated and found to be a huge success, with 42% of habitual smokers who were referred to it and used their vape voucher quitting within a month.
The programme has been implemented throughout Norfolk as a result of the pilot’s success, and the research team hopes that it will eventually be implemented nationwide to assist more smokers in quitting.
Prof. Caitlin Notley, study director and addiction specialist at the University of East Anglia’s Norwich Medical School, stated, “Research shows that vaping is an effective way of quitting smoking, compared to nicotine replacement therapies like patches and gum. E-cigarettes or vapes are now the most popular way of stopping smoking.”
She further said, “We wanted to see whether GPs giving out vape shop vouchers, alongside support from the stop smoking service, can help smokers quit. We particularly wanted to target vulnerable and disadvantaged smokers who had failed to quit smoking by other means.”
Norfolk’s Director of Public Health, Dr. Louise Smith, welcomed the collaboration with UEA on this council-led initiative to further develop services to help people quit smoking.
The team worked with Great Yarmouth GPs to assist patients with co-morbidities who had previously attempted and failed to quit smoking.
Tobacco use is about 21% in Great Yarmouth, compared to 14% in the rest of Norfolk and 15% nationally.
Participants received additional support from Smokefree Norfolk, as well as advice on the strengths and flavours of e-liquids, in addition to their starter kit.
In order to learn more about the participants’ experiences, the research team interviewed some of the participants, vape shop employees, GPs, and Smokefree Norfolk staff.
The team hopes that a similar voucher programme can be implemented across the UK to encourage more people to switch from smoking to vaping and reduce the number of people who still smoke cigarettes.
Norfolk County Council hired UEA to oversee the study in addition to working with the public health team and the neighbourhood quit smoking programme Smokefree Norfolk.