Study finds quitting smoking easier in groups

William Atkins
Friday, 23 May 2008 00:25

Science - Health

They also found these following results:

Smoking cessation (the process of quitting smoking) by a spouse also decreased a person’s chance of smoking by 67%.

Quitting smoking by a sibling decreased the chances of a person smoking by 25%.

Smoking cessation by a friend decreased the chances of a person smoking by 36%.

When groups of people in small businesses were studies, the researchers found that cessation by a coworker decreased the chances of a person smoking by 34%.

The more education a person attains, then the more ability that person has at influencing someone else to quit smoking, however, such influence was not found among close neighbors in a person’s local neighborhood.

The researchers concluded that smoking cessation seems to be more effective depending on a person’s network of friends, family, and coworkers. People with close ties with other people who stopped smoking also seemed to stop smoking more frequently than if those people did not stop smoking.

The researchers specifically concluded in the abstract to their paper, “Network phenomena appear to be relevant to smoking cessation. Smoking behavior spreads through close and distant social ties, groups of interconnected people stop smoking in concert, and smokers are increasingly marginalized socially. These findings have implications for clinical and public health interventions to reduce and prevent smoking.”