Research gives insight into kicking the habit
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The Ontario Tobacco Survey is the first and only study of its kind in Canada.
There’s no time like the New Year to make resolutions for a healthier lifestyle. But if you’re one of countless Canadians who have vowed to quit smoking in 2014, there’s bad news — because if your quit attempt was planned, you’re actually more likely to flop.
“If you’ve set a quit date, you’re less likely to succeed than if you just throw your cigarettes away,” explains Michael Chaiton, a scientist with the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit. “The unplanned quit attempts are more likely to succeed than planned attempts.”
This is just one of the many findings from Chaiton’s research on the behaviour of Canadians who are trying to quit smoking. Since 2005, Chaiton’s team has been collecting data from more than 4,500 smokers across Ontario to examine the factors that affect smoking cessation. The result is the Ontario Tobacco Survey, the first and only study of its kind in Canada.
While previous research has investigated smoking and quitting behaviour, it’s been limited to large national surveys that haven’t contained detailed information or allowed time for follow-ups with participants. Clinical level smoking cessation studies have also been conducted, but Chaiton explains the participants typically belong to a unique population. People who visit doctor’s offices for aid in quitting aren’t representative of the general population, he says, because heavy smokers with aggravated health problems have added motivation for quitting.
To gain a greater understanding of smoking cessation attempts in the general population, Chaiton’s team surveyed thousands of smokers biannually for a period of three years. Now, with funding from the Canadian Cancer Society, Chaiton is in the process of using data from the survey to identify indicators that will help smokers succeed in their quit attempts—and ultimately reduce the burden of cancer in Canada. The cause of 30 per cent of cancers, tobacco smoking is the leading preventable cause of cancer in Canada.
“I hope we can learn things we can do to change the environment so that people have an easier time to quit smoking,” says Chaiton, who has been working in tobacco control for more than 10 years. Already, he’s identified proximity to retail stores and exposure to smoke on patios as factors that make quitting more difficult. “Those are some factors that we can potentially change, and I think those are the kinds of things that make a real difference,” he says.
As for your New Year’s resolution? The study has also demonstrated that smoking cessation aids, such as medication and nicotine patches, help users get through the first seven days of their quit attempt, which is when half of people relapse. And—planned or unplanned—you can only quit if you actually try.
Says Chaiton: “Any quit attempt is a good one.”
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