Over a Million UK Smokers Quit Smoking Due to The Covid-19 Pandemic

Source from:  Vapingpost 10/12/2020

A representative study of about 2,000 people conducted between the 30th of April and the 13th of May in YouGov’s Covid-19 tracker, had found that approximately 2.2 million people in the UK may have been smoking more than usual during the coronavirus crisis. Additionally, a further 4.8 million were thought to be smoking the same amount as before the pandemic, while 1.9 million are believed to have cut down.

However, according to new data released by the nonprofit Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) from a study conducted between April 15 to June 20, over one million people in Britain have given up smoking.

Majority of smokers who quit were young adults

Of these, almost half (41%) said that deciding to quit was a direct response to heightened health concerns brought about by the pandemic. The ASH found that of the 1 million people who quit between April and June, 400,000 were aged between 16 and 25, meaning that younger people were more likely to quit than their older counterparts.

“For young people who have been quitting, there’s a desire to generally be more healthy, and take control at a time in their lives where that control has been taken away,” said Hazel Cheeseman, the policy director for ASH.

“Younger people are more likely to be in employment that’s been disrupted, or have their education or social lives disrupted. Their lives have been much more affected by the experience of lockdown, whereas older people have been in their own homes and maintained their own space.”  Enditem