The use of nicotine replacement therapy to help disadvantaged caregivers to abstain from smoking in the home
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Author(s)
Olesya Atkinson, Ann McNeill and Laura Jones
Presenter(s)
Dr Laura Jones Research Fellow, Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Nottingham
Abstract
In the UK, around two million children are regularly exposed to second hand smoke (SHS) in the home, and close to half of all children live in households with at least one smoker. Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) has recently been licensed to help smokers to abstain from smoking for short time periods - known as temporary abstinence (TA). To explore the concept of using NRT for TA in the home, to protect children from SHS, 22 disadvantaged smoking caregivers who were accessing Nottingham Children’s Centres were interviewed. The discussions identified a negative attitude towards TA. Caregivers did not believe that they could temporarily abstain from smoking in the home due to deeply embedded smoking routines and smoking offering more than just nicotine. If caregivers were to make a substantial effort to change their home smoking, they would prefer to cut down or quit, with the aid of NRT, rather than abstain temporarily. Caregivers believed that using NRT to cut down might be a first step towards quitting.
Overall, using NRT for TA and cutting down as a means of protecting children from SHS in the home is a relatively new concept, which merits further research.
Source of funding: This study was supported by core funding to the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies (www.ukctcs.org) from the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, and the Department of Health, under the auspices of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration.
