THE BENEFITS OF QUITTING

When people give up smoking, they experience a range of short to medium-term health benefits:¹
- In a few days, their heart rate drops, their sense of smell and taste improves, and their blood levels of carbon monoxide and oxygen return to normal
- In a few weeks, their risk of sudden death from a heart attack is reduced, their lung function improves, and they are less short of breath
- In a few months, their symptoms of chronic bronchitis improve, and they are at reduced risk of ulcers ¹

As time moves on from their quit date, they also experience longer-term benefits of stopping smoking ²
• After 1 year, risk of a heart attack halves vs a smoker’s

- After 10 years, risk of death from lung cancer halves vs a smoker’s
- After 15 years, risk of heart attack falls to the same as someone who has never smoked
Quitting smoking also makes people less likely to develop type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, eye disease and dementia

Quitting smoking also reduces the health-related risk of smoking for other people. Historic estimates are that passive smoking in the home setting may account for 2700 deaths annually in people aged between 20-64 years ³
Long-term exposure to passive smoking can increase the risks of coronary heart disease, lung cancer and stroke by upto 30% ⁴

Nicotine is highly addictive
Smoking is not a lifestyle choice but a dependency requiring treatment ⁵
Advice and interventions from healthcare professionals can greatly increase the likelihood of successfully quitting smoking⁶
At present, around half of all smokers in England try to quit just using willpower, despite this being the least effective method ⁵
It is important that people who smoke keep trying to quit. It may take more than 30 unsuccessful attempts before they succeed in stopping smoking ⁷

References

NHS Inform. Benefits of stopping smoking. Available at https://www.nhsinform.scot/healthy-living/stopping-smoking/reasons-to-stop/benefits-of-stopping-smoking/. Accessed November 2023.
NHS Better Health. Benefits of quitting smoking. Available at https://www.nhs.uk/better-health/quit-smoking/benefits-of-quitting-smoking/. Accessed November 2023.
Jamrozik K. Estimate of deaths attributable to passive smoking among UK adults: database analysis. Br Med J 2005;330:812.
NHS Inform. Dangers of second hand smoke. Available at https://www.nhsinform.scot/healthy-living/stopping-smoking/reasons-to-stop/dangers-of-second-hand-smoke#:~: text=Long%2Dterm %20effects%20from%20exposure,increased%20by%2020%2D30%25. Accessed November 2023.
Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. Smoking and tobacco: applying All Our Health. Available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/smoking-and-tobacco-applying-all-our-health/smoking-and-tobacco-applying-all-our-health. Accessed November 2023.
WHO Health systems and professionals. Available at https://www.who.int/teams/health-promotion/tobacco-control/quitting/health-systems-and-professionals. Accessed November 2023.
Chaiton M, Diemert L, Cohen JE, et al. Estimating the number of quit attempts it takes to quit smoking successfully in a longitudinal cohort of smokers. BMJ Open 2016;6:e011045.