Help when you need it
By Dr Jeremy Sims

The dangers of smoking are well known. It is the single
largest cause of serious illness and preventable death in
this country. Yet trying to give up is not always easy.
Those sudden urges for one last drag can be the downfall of
even the most determined and motivated of people. But help
can soon be at hand or, more accurately, at your fingertips,
judging by the recently published results of a Scottish
health initiative.

In an antismoking campaign carried out by the Health
Education Board for Scotland smokers were invited to call a
telephone helpline known as Smokeline, available free of
charge to callers and staffed by trained counsellors seven
days a week. These councillors not only offered advice and
tips on giving up but also provided general support and
encouragement when needed by smokers and their families.

A concurrent survey with followup interviews enabled
researchers to gather information on the number of calls
received, any subsequent changes in smoking behaviour by
callers, and the overall impact of the helpline on the
prevalence of smoking in the general population.

The published figures highlight some quite dramatic results.
Over 82,000 regular smokers contacted Smokeline in its first
year of operation, accounting for approximately 6 per cent
of all adult smokers in Scotland. At the end of this first
year nearly one quarter had quit smoking, while nine out of
every ten people had made at least some effort to cut down
their consumption. In broader terms, this meant that 1.4 per
cent of all adult smokers had been able to pack in with the
direct assistance of Smokeline.

But the success of the campaign didn't stop there. Indeed,
by the end of the second year results showed that Smokeline
had played a major role in an accelerated decline in smoking
habits in Scotland. The prevalence of smokers in the 2565
age group had fallen by 6 per cent in that year a figure
substantially lower than before the start of the campaign.

The Smokeline trial in Scotland has possibly paved the way
for similar schemes nationwide. The development of a
national network of telephone support lines could prove to
be a major advancement in the promotion of health in the UK
and hopefully make a sizeable impression on the incidence
of smokingrelated disease.