Stop smoking initiative hailed overwhelming success
Nominated category: Team of the Year
The prevalence of smoking and the number of cigarettes smoked has traditionally been higher with military personnel than with civilians. And with smoking being the largest single cause of preventable illnesses, disease and premature death, something had to be done to address this.
To that end, a joint MoD and Department of Health project was launched to help smokers quit. In the past, military support for stopping smoking was provided on an ad-hoc basis, so close co-operation between the Department of Health Tobacco Policy Unit and the Project team was vital to the success of the initiative which focussed on developing smoking cessation services for the individual needs of military personnel. A key element to the success was the appointment of a dedicated Armed Forces smoking cessation co-ordinator. Professor Peter Hajek and the AF SC co-ordinator developed a specifically adapted training programme for SC advisors with inspirational expertise and motivation provided by the professor.
During the project, Armed Forces smoking prevalence declined steadily, as shown in inspection figures:
| Year |
03/04 | 04/05 | 05/06 | 06/07 |
| RN | 25.9% | 23% | 22.5% | 19.7% |
| Army | 35% | 33% | 31.3% | 28.1% |
| RAF | 21% | 19.6% | 18% | 16.6% |
The project substantially outperformed set targets, with 8650 setting a quit date (target 3300) and at 4 weeks 4244 (49%) were recorded as still stopped (target 825, 25%). The data demonstrates that military personnel can successfully stop smoking when given appropriate help, even on operational duty. Using evidence from the project, the MoD policy of banning smoking in public places was implemented in December 2006, ahead of the English legislation.
John Tilley, senior policy manager, DH Tobacco Unit, explained: “I have admired the energy, can-do mentality and the particular ability of those associated with the project. I especially appreciated their preparedness to working in a flexible way with partners in DH, the NHS and the wider community, enabled differing traditions to come together, prevent potential problems and overcome obstacles. Common sense and the ability to keep eyes fixed on the shared goal of improving health by reducing smoking in the Armed Forces was key to success.”
Close co-operation between the DH Tobacco Policy Unit and the Project Team was vital to the success of this initiative, developing smoking cessation services for the particular needs of military personnel. Out of many projects initiated by the NHS Cancer Plan (2001), this was one of only two to achieve completion with excellent results, at a time of high operation tempo. Success was achieved and the project substantially outperformed set targets, with 8650 setting a quit date (Target: 3300) and at four weeks 4244 (49 percent) were recorded as still stopped (Target: 825 (25 percent)). The data demonstrates that military personnel can successfully stop smoking when given appropriate help, even when on operations.