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Exploring, identifying and addressing barriers to engaging with smoking
cessation services?
Authors:
NHS Health Scotland (commissioners for this research),
Scott Porter Research and Marketing Ltd (research agency)
Presenter:
Fiona Moore
Public Health Adviser (Tobacco), NHS Health Scotland, Edinburgh, UK
Abstract
This abstract focuses on a piece of research which was
commissioned to:
- provide insights into the factors preventing engagement with
and attendance at smoking cessation services (including the
identification of aspects of service delivery or design which may
encourage or discourage people from using the services),
in particular among socio-economically disadvantaged and
other sub-groups of hard-to-reach smokers.
- inform a strategy to encourage engagement with services and
future development of a communications strategy to promote
the services (including the most appropriate methods, channels
and messages for communicating with smokers and particular
hard-to-reach groups of smokers, to encourage them to quit
with services).
Using a qualitative approach involving individual in-depth interviews (n = 56) and ethnographic observations (4 stages), the research focused on awareness of smoking cessation services/aids to quitting smoking, perceptions of services pre-exposure, and actual exposure to services and associated perceptions (which were particularly insightful), in order to inform the strategy. It identified the key barriers to be lack of awareness of services, misconceptions re what they offered, and an unclear benefit. It also proposed national and local strategies and the key ingredients required for addressing the barriers and for communicating with and facilitating engagement of potential service users.
Source of funding: Scottish Government/NHS Health Scotland core funding
Declaration of interest: none
About the presenter
Fiona Moore is Public Health Adviser for tobacco within the Evidence for Action team at NHS Health Scotland, Scotland’s national agency for health improvement, where she has worked for over 2 years. She has worked for over 14 years in the field of tobacco control/smoking cessation throughout the UK.
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