Evaluation of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on a smoking cessation service in Derbyshire: An interrupted time series analysis

Gleeson, Hayley; Earnshaw, Jennifer; Craig, Chris; Hodson, Chloe; Szatkowski, Lisa

Abstract

Background
Data published early in the COVID-19 pandemic suggested that smokers infected with SARS-CoV-2 were more likely to need hospital treatment or die than non-smokers, and thus this was seen as a motivator to encourage smokers to make a quit attempt. Live Life Better Derbyshire (LLBD) is an integrated lifestyle service providing free support for residents Derbyshire, UK, who want to quit smoking. On 19 March 2020, LLBD converted from offering face-to-face cessation support to a smoking cessation service delivered remotely.

Methods
Interrupted time series analysis to investigate the impact of COVID-19, and the shift to remote delivery of smoking cessation support, on the number of smokers who accessed cessation support with LLBD, set a quit date, and self-reported having quit at 4-week follow-up.

Results
11,393 episodes of smoking cessation support were opened with LLBD between 01 January 2018 and 31 December 2021. The weekly count of all outcomes was increasing prior to the date when LLBD converted to remote-only delivery. There was a 20% immediate drop in the number of episodes opened coinciding with this date (IRR 0.88, 95% CI 0.646–0.992) but no change in the number of quit dates set or 4-week quits or the underlying longer-term trends.

Conclusions
The COVID-19 pandemic, and associated shift to remote delivery of smoking cessation support by LLBD, had no substantial sustained overall impact on measures of smoking cessation service activity and success.

Citation

Gleeson, H., Earnshaw, J., Craig, C., Hodson, C., & Szatkowski, L. (2024). Evaluation of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on a smoking cessation service in Derbyshire: An interrupted time series analysis. PLoS ONE, 19(6), Article e0303876. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0303876

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 1, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Jun 6, 2024
• Publication Date: Jun 6, 2024
• Deposit Date: Jun 11, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 12, 2024
• Journal: PLoS ONE
• Electronic ISSN: 1932-6203
• Publisher: Public Library of Science
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 19
• Issue: 6
• Article Number: e0303876
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0303876
• Keywords: COVID 19; Pandemics; Smoking habits; Age groups; Ethnicities; Autocorrelation; SARS CoV 2; Time series analysis
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/35734916
• Publisher URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0303876