Can exercise help smokers quit?

The study, led by Professor Adrian Taylor from the University’s School of Sport and Health Sciences, will involve smokers who haven’t typically used NHS Stop Smoking Services — which are known to greatly enhance the likelihood of successful quitting.

It has been funded by The National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment (NIHR HTA) programme as part of efforts to expand the evidence base in the area of smoking cessation.

The research team at the University of Exeter have conducted previous research and a pilot study that suggest physical activity can help smokers to manage cravings, withdrawal symptoms, stress and weight gain.

Professor Taylor said the new study would take an important step forward in looking at how physical activity can help those who want to reduce the number of cigarettes smoked to take a step towards quitting.

He said: “Smoking reduction strategies, particularly using nicotine replacement therapy, have been shown to increase the number of people trying to quit and increase abstinence among those initially not wishing to give up smoking.

“Adding physical activity to usual care has been shown to increase abstinence rates among smokers making an abrupt quit attempt.

“However, the role of increasing physical activity as an aid to smoking reduction leading on to quitting has not been examined, especially among 'hard-to-reach' smokers. This research could lead to an increase in the numbers who get into smoking cessation therapy, and is a vital step toward improving the population’s health.”

A sample of 120 smokers who are looking to cut down will be drawn from two areas in Plymouth where more than 45% of adults still smoke, more than twice that of other areas of Plymouth and the national average. They will then be randomly allocated one of two approaches. One offering brief advice to help them reduce smoking, another encouraging — through a range of approaches — an increase in their physical activity along with support to reduce smoking.

Both groups will also be offered support through the local NHS Stop Smoking Service (SSS) for up to six weeks, if and when they decide to quit smoking.

A spokeswoman for the NIHR HTA programme said: “With the growing awareness of the health risks and inequalities associated with smoking it is vital that research is conducted into new ways of helping people to give up, especially as 74 per cent of smokers say they want to quit, but only a tiny proportion of these people make use of the free service provided by the NHS.”