Phone and web counselling helps you quit smoking

The combination of telephone counselling and online guidance can help you to quit smoking, a new scientific study that was published on Monday suggests.

The research paper, which appeared in the Archives of Internal Medicine journal, detailed the attempts of 2,000 smokers to give up the habit. Some were given access to a quit smoking website, some to telephone counselling, and some to both.

After 18 months the people who had access to both were twice as likely to have given up smoking. Overall there was a success rate of around 7.7%. The success rate for smokers who attempt to give up smoking without medication (such as the prescription drug Champix) or personal assistance is around 5%. Researchers may now seek to use the internet as a smoking cessation tool.

The combination of physical nicotine addiction, and the psychological habit of having a cigarette, can make it very difficult for smokers to give up their habit. Research from Tel Aviv University in Israel last year suggested that giving up smoking is more ‘mind over matter’, and that the mental pull of smoking cigarettes is even stronger than the physical draw.

Smoking is the biggest cause of premature death in the US. Statistics also show that around 1 in 5 Americans smoke, and that for those who do not quit, around half will die from their habit. Smoking costs the US economy around $193 billion every year; much of this is due to medical expenditure.

Smoking levels have declined in recent history. Some states have enforced smoking bans in workplaces, bars, restaurants and other public buildings. A smoking ban has been announced for outdoor public spaces in New York including Central Park.