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L.F. Soriano, H. Poole, J.R. Ingram, R.A. Abbott, Effectiveness of a stop smoking service in reducing cigarette smoking in patients referred from a National Health Service dermatology centre, British Journal of Dermatology, Volume 183, Issue 6, 1 December 2020, Pages 1119–1121, https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.19378
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Funding sources: none.
Conflicts of interest: J.R.I. is the Editor of the British Journal of Dermatology.
Dear Editor, Cigarette smoking is the leading avoidable cause of mortality in the UK. Individuals who start smoking in early adult life lose 10 years of life expectancy.1 Smoking is a risk factor for psoriasis [odds ratio (OR) 1·94, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1·64–2·28], hidradenitis suppurativa (HS; OR 1·90, 95% CI 1·84–1·96), healing delay (OR 2·07, 95% CI 1·53–2·81), surgical site infection (OR 1·79, 95% CI 1·57–2·04), wound complications (OR 2·27, 95% CI 1·82–2·84) and melanoma (relative risk 1·7, 95% CI 1·2–2·6).2–5 UK National Health Service stop smoking services (SSS) provide behavioural support delivered by trained practitioners and pharmacotherapy.
In this single‐centre, retrospective study, we evaluated the effectiveness of referring current smokers – identified in Cardiff dermatology clinics – to a structured hospital‐based SSS between June 2017 and May 2019. SSS staff delivered a training session for dermatology clinicians in February 2017. Permission was obtained from patients prior to referral.