Dr. Michael Fiore, Director of the University of Wisconsin Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention, discusses the $10 million grant UW-Madison received for a new study and program aimed to help smokers quit.
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UW Receives Funding for New Smoking Study
Adam Schrager:
Some estimates show that as many as 40% of us spent this past week making resolutions concerning our behavior for the new year. Maybe we want to get in shape or be a better friend. For up to 800 friends in Wisconsin they resolve to quit smoking in 2013, they may have the opportunity for some help. Dr. Michael Fiore runs the Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention and joins us to talk about a grant. Talk to me about the plans for this money that’s coming from the senate Institute of Health.
Dr. Michael Fiore:
The grant is going to do two things, identify smokers who will get free coaching, one of a series of free medications and a whole series of health tests all with a goal to identify the best treatments to help people quit, but then to look at the health benefits of quitting. There have been few studies over time that have followed people who have successfully quit to see exactly what we could tell smokers in terms of the benefits you’ll experience as a result of quitting.
Adam Schrager:
You and I were talking before. It just seems intuitive. If you stop, you’re going to feel better, but — empirically the data is not there to prove that yet?
Dr. Michael Fiore:
We haven’t followed people over time, so we could actually track the differences. So we’ll have more than 1500 smokers who will do a bunch of sophisticated lab tests at three years and five years and we’ll be able to document what are the benefits of quitting.
Adam Schrager:
This is a continuation of a study that you’ve been doing here at the university. I guess why have you been able to be so successful in helping people quit whereas maybe they had tried and failed in the past?
Dr. Michael Fiore:
Yeah. Well, we know that most people in Wisconsin today want to quit. In fact eight out of ten say I wish I never start said. They’ve already tried to have quit. Most, though, try cold turkey on their own. The success rate there, less than 5% over time. In contrast, if you see a doctor, take advantage of the Wisconsin tobacco quit line or join a program like this research study, you could boost that success rate to 20, 30, even 40%. so the impact of treatment, science-based treatment, is dramatically improved.
Adam Schrager:
You mentioned at the beginning this study will offer coaching. I found that intriguing. Explain what you mean by individual coaching.
Dr. Michael Fiore:
Yeah. Anybody who’s tried to quit knows that it is a miserable process, and unfortunately we don’t have any magic even as part of this program. But what we can do is have a person working with you side by side at the start, providing you social support, giving you science-based tips, be available if you’re having a tough moment. And what we found with this sort of one-on-one coaching it really boosts success.
Adam Schrager:
When we’re talking about success, how often will people start and then fail and then start again? And how many times does it take?
Dr. Michael Fiore:
Yeah. You know, smokers are individuals. The average is about five to seven times. But here’s the key message. No matter how many times you’ve tried, no matter what method you use, the best thing you could do to improve your health is to quit. This program is a wonderful way to do it. There’s lots of others. But if you’re interested, we’d love to work with you.
Adam Schrager:
Got about a half a minute left. How big of a problem is this still in the state of Wisconsin?
Dr. Michael Fiore:
Well, today in Wisconsin about 19% of adults smoke. That’s great progress from more than 40% in the 1960s, but we got a long ways to go. We’ve got almost a million adult smokers in our state. They’re also very expensive. They have health problems that cost our state almost a billion dollars in health care costs. So we need to do more at the state level. With the Wisconsin tobacco quit line and other programs to help them to quit.
Adam Schrager:
We’re going to have an opportunity to do that with this new grant. Thank you so much for joining us. If you are interested in participating in this study, we’re going to have the link to where you can sign up on our website, wpt.org. Again, that is wpt.orghereandnow.
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