Stop smoking work not helping young

Report authors Dr Gill Grimshaw, of Warwick University Medical School, and Alan Stanton, of Solihull Care Trust, said several Scottish NHS programmes had struggled to recruit young smokers. After one year only 11 young people - 2.4 per cent - from all seven projects managed to quit long term.

Martin Dockrell, policy and campaigns officer at anti-smoking pressure group Ash, told CYP Now: "Young people often say to themselves they'll quit before they're 30. The problem is the younger you start to smoke the more addictive smoking tends to be. More than 90 per cent of 16-year-old regular smokers live in a household with at least one other smoker so it could be especially important to consider young people's social environment if we want them to make their choice to quit stick."

In the UK around 12 per cent of teenagers smoke and research has shown that 70 per cent of young smokers express a desire to quit soon after taking up the habit. But there is no clear evidence available to show what programmes work best.

- www.cypnow.co.uk/doc.