HoptoStop: Development and feasibility of a novel intervention to promote active ageing and smoking cessation in inactive smokers

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Smokers are less physically active than the general population which puts them at greater risk of infectious disease and early death. Encouraging individuals who smoke to lead smoke-free and active lives is therefore a priority. Stop-smoking services operating out of pharmacies, supermarkets and GP surgeries in local neighbourhoods provide a unique opportunity to engage smokers in physical activity in addition to smoking cessation. Some studies have explored this approach. Physical activity has been used as an aid for smoking cessation because it can reduce the desire to smoke, help weight-loss and improve confidence, which are common barriers to smoking cessation. At the moment, we cannot be certain that physical activity improves smoking quit-rates, because it is difficult to keep people interested and involved with the intensity of activity necessary for change. A 12-week supervised vigorous exercise programme has facilitated long-term quit rates when used in combination with a smoking cessation programme so it is possible. However, supervised exercise programmes like this are beyond the scope of most stop-smoking services and are unlikely to be maintained by individuals in the long-term. This is especially true for smokers who cite lack of time as a common barrier to maintaining regular physical activity. High-impact physical activity such as jumping and hopping has the potential to be used as a coping strategy for reducing the desire to smoke because it involves short bouts of intense activity with time for sufficient recovery. It also has the potential to be used for improving quit rates because it can be carried out at home and is easily integrated into every-day routine, allowing for a greater chance of uptake and maintenance for public-health impact. In inactive adults, we have shown that short bouts of regular high impact physical activity produced more than 91% adherence rates over a 12-month period. Implementing high impact physical activity into stop-smoking services has intuitive appeal because it could provide opportunity to assist stop-smoking treatment with improving quit rates. Improvements in physical fitness and musculoskeletal health could also provide an important extra stimulus to stop smoking. However this has never been tried, so we know nothing about the feasibility, acceptability or views of users towards such an idea. Without this crucial information and some knowledge of the potential barriers, it would be difficult to proceed. This project would investigate the feasibility and acceptability of implementing high-impact physical activity into a local stop-smoking service (Quit51) and explore the views and attitudes relevant to the intervention in order to develop and refine it. We would do this by first developing the approach with input from current and ex-smokers, Operations Managers (Quit51) and Public Health Leads and secondly by assessing how many people volunteered for the study, whether they carried out the activity and how effectively procedures were delivered. Thirdly, we would explore the views of smokers who did and who did not volunteer for the study to find out why, and the views of those who did and did not complete the activity to find out what they liked/disliked about it. Finally we smoking-cessation advisors would give us their views on the delivery of the activity and thoughts how such an approach might be improved for future work.