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New Study Reports that Mailing Ex-Smokers Set of Self-Help Booklets Helps Them Stay Smoke-Free [10/26-5]

Excerpts from: Read This, Stop Smoking

ByMichael S. Green The Washington Post [10/26/04]


The Buzz Mark Twain said it best: "Quitting smoking is easy. I've done it a thousand times." Studies show that, without help, only 10 to 30 percent of ex-smokers retain that status a year after they quit. A new study by researchers at the University of South Florida found a low-cost remedy: mailing ex-smokers a set of eight self-help booklets within six months after they quit. The booklets suggest other ways to handle stress: relaxation tapes, exercise, gum, calling a friend.

The Findings The year-long study involved 431 adults who had been smoke-free for a week. Of the 115 who were given the eight pamphlets at the start of the trial, 71 percent said a year later that they hadn't lit another cigarette. Other tactics -- handing patients only one overview booklet, giving them the overview plus periodic letters of encouragement and mailing the booklets one at a time during the year -- all proved less effective.

What's Next? Study author Thomas Brandon, a psychology professor at the University of South Florida and director of the Tobacco Research and Intervention Program at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, said he hopes the study's findings will draw notice from insurers and medical providers. Typical smoking cessation programs cost up to $5,000 per person per year; a year's worth of booklets cost only $83.

Brandon's group also is conducting a study to find the best way to help women who kick smoking during pregnancy remain tobacco-free after giving birth.

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