Stressing benefits of quitting may boost smoking cessation
By ANIFriday, January 8, 2010
WASHINGTON - A new study has shown that stressing the benefits of not smoking may work better than emphasizing the negative effects of cigarettes in persuading smokers to kick the habit.
Researchers divided 28 specialists working at the New York State Smokers’ Quitline into two groups.
One group was trained to emphasize the benefits of quitting (gain-framed messages) to smokers, while the other group gave standard-care messaging that focused on the potential losses from smoking and the benefits of quitting.
Between March and June 2008, 813 callers received gain-framed messaging, and 1,222 callers received standard messaging.
At two-week follow-up interviews, smokers who received the gain-framed messaging reported more quit attempts and a higher rate of non-smoking than those who received standard-care messaging (about 23 percent versus 13 percent).
However, at three months there was no difference between the two groups of callers.
Benjamin A. Toll, of the psychiatry department at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn., and colleagues said that the findings should encourage quit lines to test new strategies in an attempt to increase smoking cessation rates.
“Furthermore, gain-framed statements appear to be somewhat beneficial in enhancing short-term smoking cessation and other secondary outcomes, such as quit attempts and positive health expectancies,” the researchers said.
The study has been published online Jan. 7 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. (ANI)
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January 9, 2010: 3:22 am
Since 1981 there have been 148 reported studies on ETS, involving spouses, children and workplace exposure. 124 of these studies showed no significant causal relationship between second hand smoke and lung cancer. Of the 24 which showed some risk, only two had a Relative Risk Factor over 3.0 and none higher. What does this mean. To put it in perspective, Robert Temple, director of drug evaluation at the Food and Drug Administration said “My basic rule is if the relative risk isn’t at least 3 or 4, forget it.” The National Cancer Institute states “Relative risks of less than 2 are considered small and are usually difficult to interpret. Such increases may be due to mere chance, statistical bias, or the effect of confounding factors that are sometimes not evident.” Dr. Kabat, IAQC epidemiologist states “An association is generally considered weak if the relative risk is under 3.0 and particularly when it is under 2.0, as is the case in the relationship of ETS and lung cancer. Therefore, you can see any concern of second hand smoke causing lung cancer is highly questionable.” Note that the Relative Risk (RR) of lung cancer for persons drinking whole milk is 2.14 and all cancers from chlorinated water ranked at 1.25. These are higher risks than the average ETS risk. If we believe second hand smoke to be a danger for lung cancer then we should also never drink milk or chlorinated water. |
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