Trial of physical Activity and Reduction of Smoking - May 2017

‌The Exeter Health Economics Group has been awarded funding from the NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme (NIHR HTA: 15/111/01) as part of a project to assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of new support to help smokers who want to reduce but not quit.

The study, with £1.8 million of funding from the NIHR, is led by Professor Adrian Taylor from Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry (PUPSMD), and is supported by the NIHR Collaboration for Applied Health Research and Care South West Peninsula (NIHR PenCLAHRC), and is a collaborative project between Partners in Plymouth, University of Exeter, St George’s University of London, University of Oxford, University of Nottingham, and Plymouth City Council.

The project builds on an earlier successful pilot study/trial which showed preliminary evidence that providing personal Health Trainer support to reduce cigarette consumption and increase physical exercise, may reduce smoking rates, encourage more quit attempts and increase short-term abstinence (see: http://www.nets.nihr.ac.uk/projects/hta/077802). The aim of the current study is to investigate whether the Health Trainer support is better at helping people to quit smoking for longer, compared with existing support. The study will recruit 900 people who currently smoke and who wish to reduce their cigarette consumption but who may have no immediate plan to quit. See further detail: http://bit.ly/2pH5LXT.

The Exeter Lead is Colin Green, and the research will involve development of economic modelling and the conduct of economic evaluation, alongside a large RCT, and related research on outcomes and other aspects of research on smoking cessation. The study runs over 44 months, and we will be recruiting a health economics researcher to support the project in 2018.

Date: 31 May 2017