Best strategies for kicking the tobacco habit
Relationships have much to do with decisions to quit smoking, the study found.
Ranked highest was the spouse, stating that “the other spouse’s chances of continuing smoking decreases by 67 percent.” If your friend quits, your chances of continuing decrease by 36 percent. Just under that percentage ranks co-workers and siblings.
Researchers are finding that social and cultural forces play a huge role in decisions to quit and success rates are higher. Findings of a massive 32-year study were released this week which reconstructed the social network of 12,067 individuals. Smoking cessation was found to occur in network clusters.
“We’ve found that when you analyze large social networks, entire pockets of people who might not know each other all quit smoking at once,” says Nicholas Christakis, a professor in Harvard Medical School’s Department of Health Care Policy, who, along with U.C. San Diego researcher James Fowler, authored the study.
