Friday, August 21, 2009

More BS from Britain's NHS

Britain's National Health Service (NHS) has just issued a self-congratualtory press release about its quit smoking service, claiming a 40% "success rate". This is spin, laid on top of spin, with a bit of spin on the side.
Quit smoking success rates are usually measured at 6 months. The NHS's 40% "success rate" is after just four weeks. And it gets worse...as the NHS's primary recommendation is to use nictoine replacement therapy (NRT), that a large proportion of the 40% of "successful" quitters are still using nicotine!
Research shows that with smokers quitting using willpower or NRT there is significant relapse rates between 4 weeks and 6 months, so the real life success rate is likely to be closer to the 5-7% suggested by the independent, evidence-based resource Cochrane's.
In addition, the 40% success rate is of all smokers who set a quit date with the NHS service. What about those that didn't? Ah, well, we'll just forget those shall we?
And in terms of value for money the NHS service gets worse, not better, with their cost per quitter up 26% vs. 2008.
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