E-cigarette use increases as cigarette smoking falls, report reveals

The proportion of cigarette smokers in England fell from 14.9% in 2017 to 14.4% in 2018, according to annual figures published by NHS Digital.

However, e-cigarette usage continues to rise, from 5.5% in 2017 to 6.3% in 2018.

The 2019 ‘Statistics on Smoking, England’ report includes data from Public Health England and the Office for National Statistics, and shows smoking prevalence by age, prescriptions data and hospital admissions.

According to the report, 740,000 items were dispensed as a stop-smoking aid in England  in 2018/2019, compared to 2.26 million in 2008/2009.

The report also shows that in 2018/2019, the NHS Bradford City Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) had the highest rate of smoking cessation items dispensed, at 40 per 1,000 population, while NHS Wyre Forest, NHS South Worcestershire, and NHS Redditch and Bromsgrove CCGs all recorded rates of <1 item per 1,000 population.

Overall, there were 489,300 hospital admissions estimated to be attributable to smoking in 2017/2018, which represents 4% of all hospital admissions.