The Best Way to Kick Your Smoking Habit
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A new study published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report shows that people who use both phone hotlines and online cessation services to help them quit are much more likely to say they’ve abstained from smoking compared to people who opt for just one or the other.
In general, smoking quit lines are proven to be successful interventions for smokers who want to kick the habit. They offer guidance, support and resources to keep quitters on track. Most quitlines also offer a web version of their services, but until now, it hasn’t been clear that more information really is better.
The new study suggests that it is. Researchers looked at 7,901 people who reported using either phone-only interventions, internet interventions only, or a combination of both. People who used both methods were significantly more likely to report they hadn’t smoked in 3o days when researchers followed up with them. The researchers speculate that dual usage may improve a quitter’s likelihood of succeeding, possibly because they’re strongly committed to their goal.
“Although telephone and Web-based interventions are effective in tobacco cessation, providing access to multiple types of cessation services might improve the odds of users in achieving long-term cessation,” the researchers write. The hope is that physicians will counsel patients on considering both interventions.
Our ever-connected climate may make this easier, and many public health initiatives are seeing success in sending educational text reminders. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is paying particular attention to how social media and cell phones can best be used to help break addiction. In October, the NIH pledged $11 million to studying the use of social media to help understand, prevent and treat substance use and addiction. Come on smokers quit for Life!
Here’s the Best Way to Get Someone to Quit Smoking
For years, the U.S. government has gone back and forth about whether or not it’s legal to force tobacco companies to use images of cancerous lungs and other graphic pictures on their cigarette packaging. The assumption, of course, is that the images will terrify any smoker into kicking the habit.
However, a new study published in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research shows that the graphic tactic might not work on all smokers. The effectiveness of antismoking messaging depends on the attitude of the smoker.
Researchers from the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center studied 740 smokers to figure out what type of antismoking campaigns worked best. They discovered that messages that stress the benefits of quitting, like “quitting smoking reduces the risk of death due to tobacco,” were more effective at getting smokers to quit if those smokers thought that quitting would be very hard. The more graphic and negative ads like “smoking can kill you” tended to work best for smokers who thought they could quit whenever they wanted.
One of the reasons motivating messaging worked best among smokers who viewed quitting as a challenge could be that they’re already well aware of the health risks. On the other hand, the researchers speculate that loss-framed messaging — the kind that focuses on the negative consequences of continuing a behavior — worked better for smokers who felt they had more agency in their cessation because the negative ads built up motivation to stop.
Ultimately, the researchers believe that having a mixture of various messaging strategies is the best way to appeal to a broad range of smokers, and that currently there are far more negative messages than positive ones.
That’s not to say that scary ads don’t work. For a couple years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has poured resources into an intensive ad campaign called “Tips From Former Smokers” which features real former smokers who have experienced serious setbacks from their habit, like no longer being able to speak properly or having a baby too early. During past campaigns, the CDC has said that their quit lines experience 80% more activity when the ads are running compared with the weeks before.
Terrifying ads aren’t going away anytime soon, but mixing in more motivating messages might appeal to would-be quitters of all kinds.
View attachment 150
A new study published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report shows that people who use both phone hotlines and online cessation services to help them quit are much more likely to say they’ve abstained from smoking compared to people who opt for just one or the other.
In general, smoking quit lines are proven to be successful interventions for smokers who want to kick the habit. They offer guidance, support and resources to keep quitters on track. Most quitlines also offer a web version of their services, but until now, it hasn’t been clear that more information really is better.
The new study suggests that it is. Researchers looked at 7,901 people who reported using either phone-only interventions, internet interventions only, or a combination of both. People who used both methods were significantly more likely to report they hadn’t smoked in 3o days when researchers followed up with them. The researchers speculate that dual usage may improve a quitter’s likelihood of succeeding, possibly because they’re strongly committed to their goal.
“Although telephone and Web-based interventions are effective in tobacco cessation, providing access to multiple types of cessation services might improve the odds of users in achieving long-term cessation,” the researchers write. The hope is that physicians will counsel patients on considering both interventions.
Our ever-connected climate may make this easier, and many public health initiatives are seeing success in sending educational text reminders. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is paying particular attention to how social media and cell phones can best be used to help break addiction. In October, the NIH pledged $11 million to studying the use of social media to help understand, prevent and treat substance use and addiction. Come on smokers quit for Life!
Here’s the Best Way to Get Someone to Quit Smoking
For years, the U.S. government has gone back and forth about whether or not it’s legal to force tobacco companies to use images of cancerous lungs and other graphic pictures on their cigarette packaging. The assumption, of course, is that the images will terrify any smoker into kicking the habit.
However, a new study published in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research shows that the graphic tactic might not work on all smokers. The effectiveness of antismoking messaging depends on the attitude of the smoker.
Researchers from the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center studied 740 smokers to figure out what type of antismoking campaigns worked best. They discovered that messages that stress the benefits of quitting, like “quitting smoking reduces the risk of death due to tobacco,” were more effective at getting smokers to quit if those smokers thought that quitting would be very hard. The more graphic and negative ads like “smoking can kill you” tended to work best for smokers who thought they could quit whenever they wanted.
One of the reasons motivating messaging worked best among smokers who viewed quitting as a challenge could be that they’re already well aware of the health risks. On the other hand, the researchers speculate that loss-framed messaging — the kind that focuses on the negative consequences of continuing a behavior — worked better for smokers who felt they had more agency in their cessation because the negative ads built up motivation to stop.
Ultimately, the researchers believe that having a mixture of various messaging strategies is the best way to appeal to a broad range of smokers, and that currently there are far more negative messages than positive ones.
That’s not to say that scary ads don’t work. For a couple years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has poured resources into an intensive ad campaign called “Tips From Former Smokers” which features real former smokers who have experienced serious setbacks from their habit, like no longer being able to speak properly or having a baby too early. During past campaigns, the CDC has said that their quit lines experience 80% more activity when the ads are running compared with the weeks before.
Terrifying ads aren’t going away anytime soon, but mixing in more motivating messages might appeal to would-be quitters of all kinds.