Quit Start - A social marketing intervention to motivate and assist routine & manual workers to stop smoking
Author(s)
Lynn Stanley
Presenter(s)
Mark Allen Health Promotion Specialist, Smokefree Bristol - NHS Bristol
Abstract
Approximately 30% of the population of Bristol are routine and manual workers and 33% smoke. Research was carried out to gain a better understanding of the attitudes and behaviours of this group and amongst the key findings were:
Smokers do not want to exclude themselves from their social group behaviour or be ostracised for breaking social norms, so would prefer a community or workplace approach to quitting with peer support from people they consider to be one of them
Enable them to ‘try out’ becoming a successful quitter by providing FREE trial NRT products so they can experiment and choose the one that fits their life stage and circumstances
As a result of this research the Quit Start intervention was developed to provide routine and manual workers who smoke with 2 days worth of free NRT products to try on a ‘no strings, no commitment’ basis. This enables those who have never tried to quit, or have never used NRT products before, the chance to ‘dip their toe in the water’ and experience the benefits for themselves. They are then offered further support from Smokefree Bristol in their community or workplace setting if they wish to quit for good.
Source of funding: This project was wholly funded from the Smokefree Bristol Tobacco Control budget.
