RNS, Commit to quit: It's never too late to stop smoking, November 2005
TIME: 1:41
URL: www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2005/hmsmoking.htm
Commit to quit: It's never too late to stop smoking
Kicking the habit can be especially difficult for seniors, but support groups help elderly smokers quit
Suggested lead: Each year, smoking kills more than 400,000 Americans. Kicking the habit can be especially difficult for older adults who have spent a lifetime smoking. But it's never too late to quit smoking. To help, the University of Michigan Health System is offering older adults tips and support to kick the habit for good. Here's Andi McDonnell with more.
At 70 years old, Beverly Bennett has been smoking an average of a pack a day for 54 years. She quit for about nine months in the 1990s but started again. Now, she is determined to give it another try.
Bennett explains…
“I've decided to quit because of my health, shortness of breath. I would like to live a little bit longer and it's just, almost any place you go you can't smoke anyhow.”
And Bennett is not alone. Many seniors are making the difficult decision to kick the habit, often after a lifetime of smoking. They want to do it for their health and for the health of their loved ones.
Now many seniors are finding success with the help of a support group offered at the University of Michigan Health System 's Turner Senior Resource Center . The class, however, is much different from classes for younger adults. It focuses on the psychological aspects of smoking and the process of breaking a longtime behavioral pattern.
Linda Thomas, M.S., manager of the M-Fit Tobacco Consultation Service at the U-M Health System tells us more…
“What we see in the research and what we have found in our program is skill building and education are less important for the older adult; that social support and strategies of dealing with social isolation and depression that can come from quitting smoking are more important.”
Does this approach to quitting work for seniors? Thomas says to just look at the numbers: the sessions have a 58 percent quit rate at 12 months among anyone who has attended three or more sessions. Compare that to a national rate of 5 percent among all adults – not just older adults – and it shows that the U-M program is truly a success for seniors.
Andi McDonnell, U-M Health System News.
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