["Smoke-free in May 2024": concept and description of the participants].

Abstract

Background: Far too many people smoke in Germany, and the number of serious attempts to stop smoking has been falling for years.

Methods: Smoke-free in May 2024 is a low-threshold measure to encourage people to stop smoking. Adults who "regularly" consume nicotine products as well as support persons were eligible to take part. As part of the measure, participants and supporters were offered daily support via app notifications, emails and/or WhatsApp. They were also made aware of existing stop-smoking programmes. Finally, prizes were raffled off among the successful participants.

Results: A total of 6,386 individuals registered to take part. Of these, 550 individuals registered with a person of their choice to support them. Smokers were predominantly female (56.5%) and on average 42.9 (SD=13.2) years old. They came from all federal states in Germany, with a disproportionately high number from the federal states of Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein, Berlin, North Rhine-Westphalia, Hamburg and Bavaria in relation to the population distribution. Compared to a representative sample from a study by the Robert Koch Institute (2012), they reported a significantly higher subjective socio-economic status. Of the participants, 79.3% categorised their addiction as high. Regular use of more than one nicotine products occurred in 35.3% of the sample; 39.8% of the participants stated that they had not tried to stop smoking during the last 12 months.

Conclusions: The number of smokers participating in the program is encouraging. In addition to an efficacy study, it should be examined in subsequent years how more males and individuals with a low subjective social status can be encouraged to initiate smoking cessation.