Interactive website helps lower-income smokers to stop smoking
People with lower incomes attempting to quit smoking are 36% more likely to succeed if they use a new interactive website called 'StopAdvisor' than if they use a static information website, finds a randomised controlled trial led by UCL researchers. The trial was funded by the National Prevention Research Initiative, a consortium of 16 UK health research funders. A total of 4,613 smokers took part in the study, of whom 2,142 were classified into a 'lower income' group who had never worked, were long term unemployed or from routine or manual occupations (lower socioeconomic status), versus those in managerial, professional and intermediate occupations (higher socioeconomic status). StopAdvisor was designed with particular attention to less affluent smokers by conducting user-testing exclusively with these smokers. It sought to mimic the support provided by the expert stop-smoking advisors that have proved so successful in the NHS. "Going to see a specialist stop-smoking advisor of the kind that is provided free of charge and easily accessible through one's GP or the NHS SmokeFree website remains the best way of stopping smoking," says lead author Dr Jamie Brown of UCL's Department of Epidemiology & Public Health. "But for the many smokers who do not want to do this, StopAdvisor should improve their chances of success." Among the less affluent smokers attempting to quit smoking during the trial, 8.3% succeeded using StopAdvisor compared with 6.1% who used the static information website.
