UK study suggests working from home in the pandemic may have stopped people from quitting smoking
- The UK study found that, before the pandemic, smoking prevalence fell by 5.2% per year, but the rate of decline slowed to 0.3% per year during the pandemic
- Research suggested less affluent people may have felt more urgency to quit, while those in managerial roles may have continued due to pandemic stress
Working from home during the pandemic may have stopped people quitting smoking, research in the UK suggests.
The rate of decline in smoking rates across England appears to have “stagnated”, with more young people taking up smoking during the pandemic and a slower decline in the middle classes quitting than those who were less affluent.
Experts led by University College London (UCL) analysed data from 2020 to 2022 to see what impact the Covid pandemic had on smoking rates.
The study found that, before the pandemic, smoking prevalence fell by 5.2 per cent per year, but this rate of decline slowed to 0.3 per cent per year during the pandemic.
Researchers suggested that people who are less affluent may have felt more urgency to quit during the pandemic, while those who were wealthier and had professional or managerial roles may have carried on smoking due to stress.
They said: “Possible explanations for these differences include those from less advantaged social grades being more likely to experience financial impacts of the pandemic [due to job loss or reduced earnings] which make [taking up or continuing] smoking less affordable, or work in frontline jobs that increase exposure to Covid-19 and might make quitting smoking higher priority.