Smoking and behaviour change

Smoking is an excellent example of how knowledge does not equal action. Everybody knows that smoking is bad for us, yet so many people still choose to do it. The reasons behind smoking behaviours are far more complex than craving nicotine. Telling a smoker to stop smoking has the same effect as telling a depressed person to cheer up. How do I know? I am an ex-smoker.

Smoking is the biggest cause of preventable deaths in England, accounting for nearly 80,000 deaths each year. One in two smokers will die from a smoking-related disease. At the start of this year, it was reported that around 350,000 people in the UK are expected to quit smoking in 2019, putting smoking rates at their lowest point ever. The study was carried out by the Oral Health Foundation and, out of the 500 smokers surveyed, 66% of those planning to quit are doing so to improve their overall health. The other major motivating factor was financial gain and, according to the NHS Smokefree initiative, most smokers stand to save approximately £250 per month by quitting.