Quitting smoking in the New Year

As I mentioned in Losing weight after the holidays, “Along with quitting smoking, losing weight is one of two popular New Year’s resolutions.”  It’s time to post about quitting smoking with contributions from all three of the San Diego news sources I’ve been using for Overnight News Digest on Daily Kos.

I begin by approaching the topic indirectly with KPBS on Report: California Skimping On Spending For Tobacco Prevention.

In California, only 14 percent of the recommended $441.9 million of tobacco settlement dollars is being spent on tobacco prevention and cessation programs, report by Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids finds.

Also see Report: California Skimping On Spending For Tobacco Prevention By Megan Burke, Maureen Cavanaugh, Peggy Pico.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013

It's been 15 years since most U.S. states agreed to a more than $264 billion settlement with the big tobacco companies to recover health care costs.

Many people figured that would be enough to help smokers who wanted to quit, and deter the next generation from picking up a smoking habit. But a group of public health organizations finds that in California, tobacco prevention programs are getting a very small cut of that large pot of money.

A report published Monday by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids found only 14 percent of the amount recommended by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is spent on the state's tobacco prevention and cessation programs; Only $64.8 million of the CDC-recommended $441.9 million will be spent this year in California.

Tsk, tsk.

Follow over the jump for more on quitting smoking from SDSU and UCSD.

SDSU explains the power of celebrity in Stars Offer Incentive to Quit By Michael Price

SDSU research finds people are more likely to want to quit smoking when celebrities with cancer make headlines.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Millions of people will make a resolution to quit smoking around Jan. 1, but a new study suggests an even more powerful motivator than New Year’s resolutions: celebrity cancer diagnoses.

In a study published this week in Preventive Medicine, researchers from San Diego State University, the Santa Fe Institute, the University of North Carolina and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that when celebrities publicly discuss their struggles with cancer diagnoses, the resulting media coverage prompts more smokers to search for  information on quitting than events like New Year’s Day or World No Tobacco Day.

Public health experts have long known these discussions spur others to get screened for cancer or consider the same treatments, but it was unclear whether these discussions also promoted cancer prevention behaviors, like quitting smoking. This question has evaded study because the method most commonly used to assess cancer-related behaviors—annual telephone surveys—isn’t fine-grained enough to tell researchers which events are influencing respondents’ answers.

Finally, UCSD describes the power of policy in Total Smoking Bans Work Best By Scott LaFee.

With no place to puff, smokers are more likely to cut back or quit, researchers say
December 18, 2013

Completely banning tobacco use inside the home – or more broadly in the whole city – measurably boosts the odds of smokers either cutting back or quitting entirely, report University of California, San Diego School of Medicine researchers in the current online issue of Preventive Medicine.

“When there’s a total smoking ban in the home, we found that smokers are more likely to reduce tobacco consumption and attempt to quit than when they’re allowed to smoke in some parts of the house,” said Wael K. Al-Delaimy, MD, PhD, professor and chief of the Division of Global Health in the UC San Diego Department of Family and Preventive Medicine.

“The same held true when smokers report a total smoking ban in their city or town. Having both home and city bans on smoking appears to be even more effective.”

As I wrote about losing weight, may those of you who want to quit do so safely and successfully.