Smoking - Teens Hold The Key To Quitting

Main Category: Smoking / Quit Smoking
Article Date: 20 Feb 2009 - 4:00 PDT

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A hard-hitting new Smokefree campaign - 'Worried' - launches today in the UK. The ads, aimed at parents who smoke, communicate an uncomfortable message to viewers - that teenage children worry about their parents' future due to the harmful health effects of smoking.

The campaign is supported by new findings which reveal that nearly half (46 per cent) of teenagers are more worried about their parents smoking than anything else, including money, bullying and divorce.

The survey, conducted on behalf of NHS Stop Smoking Services, concludes that teenagers are feeling increasingly responsible for their parents' health with two thirds (65 per cent) worried about their parents' smoking habit. 88 per cent of teenagers say they are concerned about the damage parents are doing to their health by smoking. With nearly 9 in 10 learning about health at school, almost half (43 per cent) claim they understand the risks of smoking better than their parents. Further findings show that:

- Nearly a third (29 per cent) of teenagers feel they are the 'health experts' in the family

- Three quarters (75 per cent) have asked or told their parents to stop

- And almost half (43 per cent) are angry that their parents won't listen to them

Health Minister Ben Bradshaw said:

"I hope that these adverts will persuade parents to stop smoking. Smoking results in over 2,000 deaths each week and is the biggest public health challenge this country faces. These new findings should also make parents think twice about the emotional distress their smoking has on their children."

In addition to feeling a burden of responsibility about their families health, parents smoking leads to feelings of frustration and anger, with a third (31 per cent) of teenagers feeling most upset with their parents when they smoke and three quarters (75 per cent) of teenagers ask their parents to stop. But 43 per cent of them feel angry that their parents don't listen to them, a third feel confused (32 per cent) about why they smoke and just under a third (29 per cent) feel frustrated that their parents don't know how bad it is for them.

Paul Lambert, Local NHS Stop Smoking Adviser from Leeds, said:

"Teenagers take far more interest in the health of their loved ones than we might often think, and many referrals to local NHS Stop Smoking Services are as a result of teenagers telling their parents what they need to know - that smoking is harming them and their loved ones. We work with lots of families and provide flexible, tailored programmes to help them quit in a way that's suitable to them. And smokers are four times more likely to go smokefree with local NHS Stop Smoking Service support."

It is hoped that the adverts, which go live from Monday 23 February, will encourage parents who smoke to consider quitting with the help of local stop smoking services. There are 150 NHS Stop Smoking Services around the country providing advice and assistance to people who want to quit smoking.

The 'Worried' adverts, commissioned by the Department of Health, are supported by recent research by Dubit, amongst 400 11-15 year old teenagers of smoking parents across England.

An Mpeg video of the new ad, a set of still images and high quality Jpegs of the new poster campaign are available for download here. This video is in an MPEG-1 format, which should be compatible with a wide range of media players, such as Windows Media Player and Realplayer.

Qualitative feedback from local NHS Stop Smoking Services showed that many parents using local NHS Stop Smoking Services recognise the negative physical and mental impacts their smoking has on their teenagers and the benefits for them of going smokefree. Feedback also showed that the majority of local NHS Stop Smoking Advisers, who support parents to give up, say that parents cite their children as an influence on their decision to stop smoking.

NHS Smokefree factsheet: facts on quitting

- Three-quarters of smokers (74 per cent) say they would like to quit if they could. Key statistics include:

- 58 per cent of smokers say that they intend to quit in the next 12 months.

- 86 per cent of smokers cite at least one health reason for why they want to quit.

- 60 per cent of current smokers have made a serious attempt to quit in the past five years

- 53 per cent of smokers have sought some kind of help or advice for quitting smoking.

- 87 per cent of people who have attempted to stop smoking in the last year would like to stop smoking

- Heavy smokers are more likely to have tried to stop smoking (87 per cent)

- 55 percent of smokers said that someone had asked them to stop smoking this tended to be a partner (22 per cent), son or daughter (17 per cent) or a parent (16 per cent)

- Women were more likely than men to say that their children were asking them to quit (22 per cent and 13 per cent respectively)

- Only 7 per cent of smokers who had previously managed to stop smoking, had quit for two years or more, while 72 per cent had only managed to quit for six months or less.

Telephone numbers for NHS Stop Smoking Support:

- NHS Smoking Helpline (0800 169 0 169)
- NHS Pregnancy Smoking Helpline (0800 169 9 169)
- NHS Asian Tobacco Helpline
- Urdu - 0800 169 0 881
- Punjabi - 0800 169 0 882
- Hindi - 0800 169 0 883
- Gujarati - 0800 169 0 884
- Bengali - 0800 169 0 885

NHS Smokefree factsheet: Top 10 tips for a successful quit attempt

Research shows smokers are up to four times more likely to stop smoking successfully if they get support from their local NHS Stop Smoking Service and Nicotine Replacement Therapy, compared with relying on willpower alone.

The NHS Smokefree campaign suggests the following top ten tips to help smokers on their path to become smokefree:

1. Order a free DVD from 0800 169 0 169 to find out about the full range of NHS support available to help you quit.

2. Get support from trained NHS advisers who can help you to understand your addiction and how to beat it.

3. Identify your smoking triggers and plan ahead. Try the Addiction Test at http://www.nhs.uk/smokefree.

4. Use nicotine replacement products or other stop smoking medicines to cope with the withdrawal symptoms. These are available on prescription from the NHS.

5. Sign up for free text and email alerts from the Together Programme with motivational tips and advice to keep you on track.

6. Avoid situations where you might be tempted to smoke again. Plan ahead to cope with the hard times.

7. Note how much cash you're saving. Work out how long it will take you to save for your dream purchase by using the calculator on http://www.nhs.uk/smokefree.

8. Use a carbon monoxide monitor to see for yourself how quickly your body recovers once you stop smoking. Local NHS Stop Smoking Services offer carbon monoxide monitoring as part of their stop smoking programmes.

9. Chuck out your ashtrays, matches and lighters and anything else you needed to smoke. Put potpourri where your ashtrays used to be - your home will smell fresher in no time at all.

10. But most importantly, take it one day at a time and reward yourself every day

NHS

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