Stoptober
England's national quit-smoking challenge, launched by the Department of Health and Public Health England in October 2012. It asks smokers to quit together for 28 days in October, because people who last 28 days are far more likely to stay quit, and offers an app, texts and local stop-smoking services.
- Years
- 2012–now
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Topic
- Tobacco
- Asks people to
- Stop
- Strategy
- Cessation service linkSimple instructionSocial norms
- Channel
- AppRadioSocial (organic)TVWebsite
- Audience
- AdultsAdult smokers in England.
Evidence
Quasi-experimentalPositive
Monthly national survey data (Brown 2014): in 2012 the quit-attempt rate in October was about 50% higher than in other months (9.6% vs 6.6%), a pattern not seen in 2007-2011. That is an estimated 350,000 extra quit attempts at under £415 per discounted life-year saved. Across 2012-2017 (Kuipers 2020), October quit attempts rose overall, more in years with bigger budgets.
Sponsor (who paid)
- Public Health England / Department of Health Foreign government, funder and creator
Credits (who made it)
Not recorded yet.
Related campaigns
- Tips From Former Smokers 2012–now
Sources
- Brown J et al. How effective and cost-effective was the national mass media smoking cessation campaign 'Stoptober'?. Drug Alcohol Depend 2014;135:52-8 evaluation · 2014 · DOI 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2013.11.003 · PMID 24322004
- Kuipers MAG et al. Impact of the "Stoptober" Smoking Cessation Campaign in England From 2012 to 2017: A Quasiexperimental Repeat Cross-Sectional Study. Nicotine Tob Res 2020;22(9):1453-1459 evaluation · 2020 · DOI 10.1093/ntr/ntz108 · PMID 31246257
Research notes
Created 2026-10-22 by literature mining (PubMed/OpenAlex); evidence level, outcome and findings are paraphrased from the evaluation abstracts, full texts not read. No credits: no page naming an agency was checked. Copied in the Netherlands (Stoppen) and France (Mois sans tabac); those could become separate cases. Evaluation links reviewed 2026-10-22: removed Tieks 2019 (Google Trends study of the Dutch Stoptober only; cited on stoptober-netherlands).
Record cases/uk-stoptober.json, updated 2026-10-23· Link to this campaign