Working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic may have prevented people from quitting smoking, according to researchers.
The research by UCL showed the decline of smoking stalled during the public health crisis, particularly among more advantaged social groups.
Before Covid, from June 2017 to February 2020, smoking prevalence fell by 5.2 per cent a year - but during the pandemic the annual rate of decline fell to just 0.3 per cent
Researchers have suggested less affluent people may have been more likely quit due to financial concerns or because they worked frontline jobs where exposure to Covid made quitting more of a priority.
“In addition, manual jobs were less disrupted through the pandemic," researchers pointed out.
"Whereas many non-manual jobs switched to home working, leading to loneliness and poorer mental health, which may have made people in more advantaged social grades less inclined to try to stop smoking.”
The research also showed smoking among young people increased 34.9 per cent during the pandemic.
Smoking prevalence increased among 18 to 24-year-olds at the start of the pandemic, but decreased among 45 to 65-year-olds at the same time, the paper said.
Researchers said this could be because younger adults experienced higher levels of stress, upheaval, and social isolation during the pandemic, which might have contributed to increased smoking prevalence.
In both age groups, these immediate changes were followed by the pre-pandemic declines stopping, and prevalence remaining flat.
The research, covering England, studied survey responses of 101,960 adults between June 2017 and August 2022 around smoking.
Lead author Dr Sarah Jackson, of the UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care, said: “Smoking prevalence has been falling among adults in England at a steady rate for more than 20 years.
“Our data show that this decline has stalled, with an increase in quitting potentially having been offset by a rise in people taking up smoking or an increase in late relapse.
“These findings make bold policy action more urgent. The Government was already not on track to meet its target for England to be smoke free by 2030. This study shows we are even further off track than we thought.”
The researchers estimated the proportion of smokers in England at 16.2 per cent in June 2017, falling to 15.1 per cent by the start of the pandemic.
Nearly two and a half years later, in August 2022, that figure was virtually unchanged, at 15 per cent.
The study, funded by Cancer Research, also used separate data from the Smoking Toolkit Study, which interviewed a representative sample of adults each month about their smoking habits.
The team found a 40 per cent increase in quit attempts during the pandemic compared to pre-pandemic and a sustained increase in the proportion of people stopping smoking but this was offset by a rise in the number of people taking it up.
They also found that smoking prevalence had increased among 18 to 24-year-olds at the start of the pandemic, and decreased among 45 to 65-year-olds at the same time.
Researchers said this could be because younger adults experienced higher levels of stress, upheaval, and social isolation during the pandemic, which might have contributed to increased smoking prevalence.
In both age groups, these immediate changes were followed by the pre-pandemic declines stopping, and prevalence remaining flat.
The researchers cautioned that these immediate changes might conceivably have been partly a result of the methodology of the survey interviews.
The flattening in the decline of smoking prevalence was particularly pronounced among advantaged social groups, such as high-earners in professional, managerial or clerical jobs.
Researchers said this could be due to a switch to home working for white collar jobs, which may have contributed to people being less inclined to stop smoking.
The Government is aiming for England to be smoke free by 2030, defined as adult smoking rates of five per cent or less.
It comes as Rishi Sunak plans to phase out smoking by increasing the smoking age by a year, every year, meaning today’s 14-year-old’s would never be able to buy a cigarette. The plan would need to be approved by MPs.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We have doubled funding for stop smoking services to nearly £140 million a year, helping 360,000 people to quit with affordable and easy access support.
"We are also supporting local authorities to provide one million free vapes via our world-first ‘Swap to Stop’ programme and providing financial incentives to support pregnant women to quit.”
The study is published in BMC Medicine.
