Research Note: Tobacco Cessation More Important than ever as Interest Declines and Sales Increase

In correspondence to the Lancet last November, three authors called for the need for increased cessation support as a result of the pandemic. The authors noted that interest in quitting remained high and that, due to the relationship between smoking and more severe COVID (including higher mortality risk), cessation should be made a public health priority. However, in March, the North American Quitline Consortium reported that Quitline calls in 2020 were down 27% compared to 2020. Although the number of Quitline calls in 2020 (525,609) is the lowest since 2007, the pandemic may not entirely explain the decrease. There was a similar drop in calls (18%) from 2017 to 2018. The quarter-over-quarter drops in 2020 were 6%, 39%, 30%, and 21% respectively. Some of the decline in calls may be related to other methods of enrolling and receiving coaching, e.g., text, email, chat, etc.—service modalities that may have gone up as people stayed at home during the lockdown and transitioned to life away from their cars and offices and onto their computers and smartphones. However, NAQC also did note that rather than declining, cigarette sales increased 1% during 2020—indicating that as people’s interests in quitting grew due to the negative impact of smoking, the urge to smoke went up more due to multiple factors (e.g., stress, loneliness, boredom, disrupted daily schedules, etc.)

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