Home > Smoking cessation in disadvantaged estates in the North East.

Lowry, R and O'Farrell, Anne and Bedford, Declan and Eldin, Nazih (2008) Smoking cessation in disadvantaged estates in the North East. Irish Medical Journal, 101, (10), p. 319.

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Letter to the editor.
Sir, Smoking is a risk factor for heart disease, stroke and cancer and contributes to an estimated 21% of deaths.1-3 The SLAN survey (2007) showed overall smoking rates at 29%.4 However, smoking prevalence remains high in areas of deprivation and smoking has been identified as the principal reason for the inequalities in death rates between rich and poor.5 The aim of this project was to establish the prevalence of smoking in areas of high deprivation in the former NEHB health board. A further aim was to offer and introduce a community based and community led smoking cessation programme to smokers and to determine whether this community programme reduced the rates of smoking among this population.

This study design was a community based and community led prospective comparative controlled before and after trial. Six areas were chosen to receive the intervention and three areas were chosen as control areas. The control areas matched the intervention areas in terms of deprivation and demographics. Furthermore, in order to ascertain that this service was being offered to those who do not usually attend the existing smoking cessation services, a review of client attendance on existing smoking cessation services was also carried out...


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