The Quit Group helps record numbers

28 July 2008 Media release: for Immediate release

The Quit Group helps record numbers

The Quit Group, the government funded national smoking cessation service dealt with almost 44,000 people wanting to quit smoking during the past year.

The Quit Group is a charitable trust set up to run quit smoking programmes nationally to reduce the number of New Zealanders who smoke.

“We are thrilled with the record number of people coming to us to quit smoking. It has an enormous positive impact when you consider the difference quitting smoking will make on these people’s lives and the health of their families, friends and colleagues,” Executive Director Helen Glasgow said.

``Quitting smoking not only has immediate health benefits, it increases peoples’ quality of life and their life expectancies.

``This result is a credit to our frontline advisers who provide support and advice to those wanting to quit smoking. They are making a real difference to thousands of New Zealanders’ lives.

``It reflects changing attitudes to smoking brought about by the bans on tobacco advertising and sponsorship and the restrictions on smoking indoors put in place in recent years. The graphic health warnings on cigarette packets are also having an impact. In January 10 percent of Quitline clients said they got the Quitline number from the packets, rising to 30 percent last month.’’

The Group last month introduced the Txt2Quit service targeting younger smokers – around 400 people have already used that service.

A combined front across the health sector on tobacco control and smoking cessation was resulting in the national smoking rate falling to its lowest level since monitoring of tobacco use began more than 30 years ago, (19.9 per cent for smokers aged 15 years and over),’’ she said.

``We are looking forward to more people making more quit attempts in the coming year,’’ Ms Glasgow said.

The Quit Group services can be reached via the Quitline free phone service 0800 778 778, www.quit.org.nz and www.txt2quit.org.nz.

ENDS

Quitline Client Registrations by DHB for July 07 – June 08

DHB Clients % NZ Smokers [1] Age 15+ (%)
Northland 1,687 3.8 4.4
Waitemata 4,321 9.8 10.1
Auckland 4,297 9.8 8.1
Counties Manukau 4,068 9.3 10.7
Waikato 3,920 8.9 9.1
Bay of Plenty 2,351 5.3 5.1
Lakes 1,292 2.9 3.1
Tairawhiti 388 0.9 1.5
Taranaki 1,202 2.7 2.8
Hawke's Bay 1,941 4.4 4.3
Whanganui 740 1.7 1.9
MidCentral 1,911 4.3 4.4
Wairarapa 366 0.8 1.1
Capital and Coast 2,970 6.8 5.8
Hutt Valley 1,768 4.0 3.8
Nelson Marlborough 1,060 2.4 3.1
West Coast 365 0.8 1.0
Canterbury 4,700 10.7 10.8
South Canterbury 501 1.1 1.4
Otago 2,219 5.0 4.4
Southland 1,005 2.3 3.1
Not defined [2] 881 2.0 -
Total 43,953 100.0 100.0

The table above shows the number of Quitline client registrations from each DHB region for the period July 2007 – June 2008.

A full data set of all recorded figures for The Quit Group’s activities is also available on request.

DHB information and maps:
http://www.moh.govt.nz/districthealthboards
http://www.moh.govt.nz/dhbmaps

[1] Source: 2006 Census – New Zealand smokers (Age 15+ years) population by DHB.
[2] The geo-coding system was unable to code some addresses - most of these are rural delivery addresses.

© Scoop Media