Jackson, S.E., Beard, E., Angus, C. orcid.org/0000-0003-0529-4135 et al. (2 more authors) (2022) Moderators of changes in smoking, drinking and quitting behaviour associated with the first COVID‐19 lockdown in England. Addiction, 117 (3). pp. 772-783. ISSN 0965-2140
Abstract
Aim
To estimate changes in smoking, drinking and quitting behaviour from before to during the first COVID-19 lockdown in England, and whether changes differed by age, sex or social grade.
Design
Representative cross-sectional surveys of adults, collected monthly between August 2018 and July 2020.
Setting
England.
Participants
A total of 36 980 adults (≥ 18 years).
Measurements
Independent variables were survey month (pre-lockdown: August–February versus lockdown months: April–July) and year (pandemic: 2019/20 versus comparator: 2018/19). Smoking outcomes were smoking prevalence, cessation, quit attempts, quit success and use of evidence-based or remote cessation support. Drinking outcomes were high-risk drinking prevalence, alcohol reduction attempts and use of evidence-based or remote support. Moderators were age, sex and occupational social grade (ABC1 = more advantaged/C2DE = less advantaged).
Findings
Relative to changes during the same time period in 2018/19, lockdown was associated with significant increases in smoking prevalence [+24.7% in 2019/20 versus 0.0% in 2018/19, adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 1.35, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.12–1.63] and quit attempts (+39.9 versus –22.2%, aOR = 2.48, 95% CI = 1.76–3.50) among 18–34-year-olds, but not older groups. Increases in cessation (+156.4 versus –12.5%, aOR = 3.08, 95% CI = 1.86–5.09) and the success rate of quit attempts (+99.2 versus +0.8%, aOR = 2.29, 95% CI = 1.31–3.98) were also observed, and did not differ significantly by age, sex or social grade. Lockdown was associated with a significant increase in high-risk drinking prevalence among all socio-demographic groups (+39.5 versus –7.8%, aOR = 1.80, 95% CI = 1.64–1.98), with particularly high increases among women (aOR = 2.17, 95% CI = 1.87–2.53) and social grades C2DE (aOR = 2.34, 95% CI = 2.00–2.74). Alcohol reduction attempts increased significantly among high-risk drinkers from social grades ABC1 (aOR = 2.31, 95% CI = 1.78–3.00) but not C2DE (aOR = 1.25, 95% CI = 0.83–1.88). There were few significant changes in use of support for smoking cessation or alcohol reduction, although samples were small.
Conclusions
In England, the first COVID-19 lockdown was associated with increased smoking prevalence among younger adults and increased high-risk drinking prevalence among all adults. Smoking cessation activity also increased: more younger smokers made quit attempts during lockdown and more smokers quit successfully. Socio-economic disparities in drinking behaviour were evident: high-risk drinking increased by more among women and those from less advantaged social grades (C2DE), but the rate of reduction attempts increased only among the more advantaged social grades (ABC1).
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 The Authors. Addiction published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society for the Study of Addiction. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Alcohol; alcohol reduction; COVID-19; drinking; quit attempts; SARS-CoV-2; smoking; smoking cessation |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health (Sheffield) > School of Health and Related Research (Sheffield) > ScHARR - Sheffield Centre for Health and Related Research The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Psychology (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 01 Sep 2021 15:37 |
Last Modified: | 10 Mar 2022 15:05 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/add.15656 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:177624 |