NEW YORK, Dec 21 (Reuters Health) -- The nationwide goal to have only 15%
of the population smoke by the year 2000 will not be met, according to
researchers reporting in the November/December issue of the American Journal of
Health Promotion.
Dr. C. Tracy Orleans from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Princeton,
New Jersey, and Dr. K. Michael Cummings of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute,
New York, point out that about 25% of adults living in the United States still
smoke. While dramatically fewer than in 1964, when 40% of adult Americans
smoked, the "decline (in smoking) among adults has stalled, and youth rates have
risen, with over 8,000 children and teens becoming new smokers each day," they
state. The leveling off of those who smoke and those who quit is occurring
despite the success of various treatment strategies that currently help 25 to
30% of motivated smokers to quit for good.
This quit rate can almost be doubled by using medications including
buproprion, an anti-anxiety drug, and nicotine replacement therapy along with
other strategies, they add. The authors acknowledge that more work "needs to be
done to reach smokers in low-income and minority populations" as well as special
groups of people such as highly addicted smokers.
Although people who succeed in quitting often can do so without the help
of any formal treatment program, "most people who try to quit on their own
fail." they note. The authors therefore suggest a number of ways to make
treatment programs more accessible to more smokers. One way would be to cover
treatment costs by using taxes raised from tobacco sales.
Prevention programs in the schools and in the community could be improved
upon, as could smoking cessation programs offered through the workplace. The
authors also note that 70% of people who smoke visit their doctor each year.
This gives doctors an opportunity to reach all but 30% of the 50 million people
who now smoke in the U.S. "Smokers receiving even 2 to 3 minutes of physician
advice to stop smoking... are twice as likely to quit as smokers (who do not
receive advice)," the authors note.
Other measures to help people stop smoking include higher taxes,
restrictions on smoking in public places and advertising warning people against
smoking. "The nation has reached a point of unprecedented potential to reduce
the social, economic and health harms caused by tobacco," the authors write.
Policies now need to be put in place to improve smokers' access to
prevention and treatment programs, especially for those who are most likely to
smoke, they suggest.
