Preventive medicine
-
In an attempt to increase the impact of smoking cessation activities, some recent studies have examined the use of contests and competitions. The study reported here evaluates a year-long multiple-lottery quit-smoking contest at Volvo Flygmotor, the Volvo aircraft engine manufacturing company in Trollhattan, Sweden. Lotteries were held at 1, 6, and 12 months after the contest began. ⋯ Point prevalence 1-month and 6-month cessation rates were 64.4 and 49.3%, respectively. Continuous abstinence 6-month and 1-year rates were 45.2 and 32.8% respectively. Psychological, home, work and smoking history variables generally were not related to cessation or relapse.
-
An important issue for public health approaches to smoking control is determining smokers' preferences for the different types of services available to assist with smoking cessation. In a population survey in the state of South Australia, smokers were asked to nominate the forms of assistance that they thought would help them to stop: a stop-smoking group; a lecture; a telephone counseling service; a book, a pamphlet, or a quit kit; a television program or a video program conducted through the mail; a program through their doctor; a program through another health professional; or none of these options. ⋯ The strong preferences for indirect methods that an earlier study and recent commentators have identified did not emerge in this survey. Preferences for personalized, as opposed to indirect forms of assistance, were more likely to be expressed by heavy smokers, those with less confidence of success at stopping, those with greater perceived difficulty of stopping, and those who had reported shorter periods of previous abstinence from smoking.