Calls to U.S. quit-smoking help lines have dropped sharply during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report released by the North American Quitline Consortium (NAQC) on Friday. At the same time, cigarette sales increased after years of steady decline, according to data from the Treasury Department.
Last year, calls to the national portal linking people to quit-smoking lines decreased by 27 percent compared to 2019, which translates to a drop of roughly 190,000 calls—the lowest call volume seen since 2007, according to data compiled by the NAQC. In recent years, annual call numbers have ranged from 700,000 to 900,000, the report said.
The largest drop, 39 percent, occurred in the three-month period from April to June during the height of lockdowns and when infections and deaths were skyrocketing.
Furthermore, rates of anxiety and depression were also on the rise at the time, with a third of Americans showing signs of the pandemic’s psychological toll.
The pandemic definitely had a big influence on whether or not people were able to quit smoking last year.
Meanwhile, cigarette sales rose by 1 percent in the first 10 months of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. Sales of cigarettes had been decreasing by 4 percent to 5 percent annually since 2015.
The NAQC annually analyzes data on the use of quit lines without issuing reports. But the changes were so big this year that the group decided to publish a report.
“We really were surprised by how dramatic the data was,” Linda Bailey, president and CEO of the NAQC, told The Washington Post. “It shows that the pandemic definitely had a big influence on whether or not people were able to quit smoking last year.”
Bailey attributes the drop in calls to smokers’ stress and anxiety caused by the pandemic. “They were worried about other things and just not able and not motivated to quit.”
The pandemic has hindered smoking cessation in other countries, too. During Italy’s lockdown, 5.5 percent of smokers surveyed in a recent study quit or reduced smoking, but 9 percent of the sample started smoking, relapsed smoking or increased their smoking intensity.
In total, the country’s lockdown increased cigarette consumption by 9.1 percent.