Too few use effective methods to quit smoking

According to “How Smokers Are Quitting,” the third in a series of action papers based on interviews with Wisconsin smokers, nearly one-half of Wisconsin smokers tried to quit last year, and more than 70 percent have tried sometime in their lifetime. Although new methods for quitting double or triple their chances for success, most smokers are still trying to quit “cold turkey.”

The UW Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention conducted the survey in cooperation with the UW Comprehensive Cancer Center. The Wisconsin Tobacco Control Board funded it.

Copies of “How Smokers Are Quitting” are available from CTRI and WTCB and online at http://www.ctri.wisc.edu and http://www.tobwis.org.

Close to 70 percent of Wisconsin smokers have tried to quit between one and five times.

“We now have a number of medications and counseling strategies that can greatly increase quit rates — nicotine replacement therapies, Zyban, telephone counseling,” says Michael Fiore, UW-CTRI director.