We’re all being a bit more conscious about our lung health during the COVID-19 outbreak. One positive outcome from the pandemic is that it offered the necessary push for 300,000 people in the UK to give up smoking.
A joint study between YouGov and the campaign group Action on Smoking and Health (Ash) took a comprehensive look at smoking rates across the country after health officials urged individuals to stop or cut back on smoking to improve lung resiliency to COVID-19.
The study of over 1,000 people found that an additional 2.4 million have cut down on smoking and 25 percent of respondents who quit said that COVID-19 made them less likely to relapse.
Quitting smoking immediately reduces the risk of numerous health threats including stroke and heart attack, but COVID-19’s direct effect on lung function is an additional reason to quit for good. The rates of individuals giving up cigarettes could be boosted in part by the successful #QuitforCOVID campaign on Twitter.
You could say one benefit of the pandemic is that it has us all paying closer attention to our health. It teaches us not to take our good health for granted and to be even more conscious about our lifestyle decisions.
