The impact of COVID-19 on smoking cessation services with insights for post-pandemic delivery.

Résumé

Smoking is a leading cause of preventable morbidity and mortality globally. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Smoking Cessation (SC) services faced many challenges, including lockdown and social distancing restrictions. Consequently, SC services had to adapt to the challenges in different ways or halt delivery. This research evaluated the impact of COVID-19 on the delivery and outcomes of SC services. This was achieved by comparing service delivery and outcomes pre-COVID-19 and during the pandemic and drawing insights for the delivery of SC services post-pandemic. Secondary analysis was performed on the data of 11,533 participants who attended the One Life Suffolk (OLS) SC services pre- and during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 4923 and 6610 participants attended SC services pre-COVID-19 and during COVID-19 respectively. Fifty-four percent of participants achieved quit status at week-4 while attending the SC services during the COVID-19 pandemic, compared with 46% pre-COVID-19, (X2(1) = 38.2, p-value