Quitters need support to try and try again

Smokers make many failed attempts to quit, suggesting more needs to be done to reduce long-term relapse, Australian researchers have found.

Using data involving more than 21,000 smokers, researchers from Cancer Council Victoria found that the majority of quitters succeeded in staying smoke-free for more than a month, with one third having stopped for more than six months.

And the average 40-year-old smoker who started in their teens will have made over 20 failed quit attempts, according to the study (link) published in Addiction (online 12 Oct).

The review of the data from the International Tobacco Control 4-Country survey that involved smokers from Australia, Canada, UK and the US, also revealed that it was very common for smokers to think about quitting but never attempting to do it.

The researchers suggest “smoking cessation is clearly on the minds of most smokers” but the “key challenge” is helping smokers stay quit long term.

And they recommend there needs to be different interventions for those who think about quitting, those who attempt to quit and fail and those who are able to stay smoke-free for a longer amount of time.

“There is a huge amount of unsuccessful quitting activity going on among smokers.,” they say.

“We need to review what we consider to be success when around one third of current smokers have achieved that milestone (six months abstinence) in the past.”