Providing information about e-cigarettes at lung health checks

The NHS has a long-term plan to reduce the number of people smoking in England to 5 per cent by 2030. To support this, it provides free e-cigarettes to smokers through the Swap to Stop scheme. One place this scheme is operating is at NHS lung health checks. These checks are offered to people aged 55 to 74 who smoke or have smoked, to look for signs of lung cancer. This is a unique opportunity to reach smokers at a time when they may be open to quitting. Some people are not open to switching from conventional cigarettes to e-cigarettes because they believe e-cigarettes are more harmful. We need a simple way to inform smokers of the benefits of switching to e-cigarettes. To do this, we have a video, posters and flyers explaining how to use e-cigarettes and their benefits and harms. Project aims In this project, we will test whether providing educational materials at lung health check sites in South West England encourages more smokers to swap their conventional cigarettes for e-cigarettes. We will measure: How many people accept e-cigarettes Of those, how many people report using the e-cigarettes 30 days later How harmful people believe e-cigarettes are We will compare these outcomes in weeks when information about e-cigarettes is provided with weeks when it is not. We will also interview some individuals who attended for a lung health check on weeks when the information was provided, and ask them what they thought of the materials and about their experiences of being offered a free e-cigarette. What we hope to achieve The results of this project will help us develop and test a final version of our educational materials aimed at encouraging smokers to swap to e-cigarettes.