Interactive website helps lower-income smokers to stop smoking

People with lower incomes attempting to quit smoking are 36 percent more likely to succeed if they use a new interactive website called 'StopAdvisor'

2014-09-25

(Press-News.org) People with lower incomes attempting to quit smoking are 36% more likely to succeed if they use a new interactive website called 'StopAdvisor' than if they use a static information website, finds a randomised controlled trial led by UCL researchers. The trial was funded by the National Prevention Research Initiative, a consortium of 16 UK health research funders.

A total of 4,613 smokers took part in the study, of whom 2,142 were classified into a 'lower income' group who had never worked, were long term unemployed or from routine or manual occupations (lower socioeconomic status), versus those in managerial, professional and intermediate occupations (higher socioeconomic status). StopAdvisor was designed with particular attention to less affluent smokers by conducting user-testing exclusively with these smokers. It sought to mimic the support provided by the expert stop-smoking advisors that have proved so successful in the NHS.

"Going to see a specialist stop-smoking advisor of the kind that is provided free of charge and easily accessible through one's GP or the NHS SmokeFree website remains the best way of stopping smoking," says lead author Dr Jamie Brown of UCL's Department of Epidemiology & Public Health. "But for the many smokers who do not want to do this, StopAdvisor should improve their chances of success."

Among the less affluent smokers attempting to quit smoking during the trial, 8.3% succeeded using StopAdvisor compared with 6.1% who used the static information website. Among more affluent smokers, there was no difference in quit rates with approximately 12% of smokers successfully quitting whether they used either website. Smokers were recruited to the trial via a notice on the SmokeFree website, a public resource for smokers attempting to quit, managed by Public Health England.

"StopAdvisor could have an important impact on public health," explains senior author Professor Robert West of UCL's Department of Epidemiology & Public Health. "An effect of as little as 1% on six-month sustained abstinence rates would result in at least 3 additional years of life for every hundred 40-year-old smokers who use the resource."

Following the positive results achieved by the StopAdvisor website, Public Health England is investigating the opportunity to develop it as an interactive stop smoking programme alongside the existing suite of marketing support products it already offers.

Martin Dockrell, Tobacco Control Programme Lead, Public Health England, said: "Smoking causes half of the difference in life expectancy between richest and poorest. That is why StopAdvisor is so important: it gives Public Health England a way of helping more smokers quit more effectively while also reducing unacceptable levels of health inequality."

INFORMATION:

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Skirt size increase linked to 33 percent greater postmenopausal breast cancer risk

2014-09-25

Overall weight gain during adulthood is known to be a risk factor for breast cancer, but a thickening waist seems to be particularly harmful, indicating the importance of staving off a midriff bulge, the research shows. The researchers base their findings on almost 93,000 women taking part in the UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening (UKCTOCS) in England. The women were all aged over 50, had gone through the menopause, and had no known breast cancer when they entered the study between 2005 and 2010. At enrolment they provided detailed information on height ...

The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology: Working long hours linked to increased risk of type 2 diabetes

2014-09-25

People working for more than 55 hours per week doing manual work or other low socioeconomic status jobs have a 30% greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to the largest study in this field so far, published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology. Mika Kivimäki, Professor of Epidemiology at University College London, UK, and colleagues conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of published studies and unpublished individual-level data examining the effects of long working hours on type 2 diabetes up to 30 April 2014. Analysis of data from 4 published ...

Identification of genetic risk factors for stroke

2014-09-25

Stroke is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. While many lines of evidence suggest that stroke risk is heritable, only a small number of genes associated with stroke have been identified. A new study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation identifies two genes that underlie cerebral small-vessel disease (CSVD), a risk factor for stroke. Ordan Lehmann and colleagues at the University of Alberta analyzed genome-wide association data from individuals that received brain MRI scans as part of the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) ...

Wound healing response promotes breast cancer metastasis in postpartum mice

2014-09-25

Within the first 5 years after the birth of a child, women are at an increased risk of developing metastatic breast cancer. Women diagnosed with postpartum breast cancer have a decreased disease free survival time compared to women that have never given birth. The aggressive tendency of postpartum breast cancer suggests that the post-birth breast environment promotes tumor metastasis. A new study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, suggests that dying tumor cells in postpartum breast tissue promote metastatic disease. Rachel Cook and colleagues at Vanderbilt University ...

Memory slips may signal increased risk of dementia years later

2014-09-24

MINNEAPOLIS – New research suggests that people without dementia who begin reporting memory issues may be more likely to develop dementia later, even if they have no clinical signs of the disease. The study is published in the September 24, 2014, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. "What's notable about our study is the time it took for this transition to dementia or clinical impairment to occur—about 12 years for dementia and nine years for clinical impairment—after the memory complaints began," said study author Richard ...

Think you have Alzheimer's? You just might be right, study says

2014-09-24

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 24, 2014) -- New research by scientists at the University of Kentucky's Sanders-Brown Center on Aging suggests that people who notice their memory is slipping may be on to something. The research, led by Richard Kryscio, PhD, Chairman of the Department of of Biostatistics and Associate Director of the Alzheimer's Disease Center at the University of Kentucky, appears to confirm that self-reported memory complaints are strong predictors of clinical memory impairment later in life. Kryscio and his group asked 531 people with an average age of 73 ...

Clinical trial examined treatment for complicated grief in older individuals

2014-09-24

Bottom Line: A treatment designed to help older individuals deal with complicated grief (CG) after the loss of a loved one appeared to be more effective than using a treatment designed for depression. Authors: M. Katherine Shear, M.D., of the Columbia University School of Social Work, New York, and colleagues. Background: About 9 percent of bereaved older women experience CG, a serious and debilitating mental health problem associated with functional impairment and increased suicidality. The symptoms can include prolonged grief, frequent thoughts and memories of the ...

Family-based therapies can treat anorexia in teens, Stanford/Packard study finds

2014-09-24

Two different family-based therapies are both effective at combating anorexia nervosa in teenagers, according to the largest study ever to compare two such treatments for the life-threatening eating disorder. The findings, from a multisite study led by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine, add to a growing body of evidence supporting the value of parents' involvement in anorexia treatment. The results, which will be published Sept. 24 in JAMA Psychiatry, follow prior Stanford research that found a family-based approach was twice as effective as ...

NIH study supports camels as primary source of MERS-CoV transmission

2014-09-24

National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Colorado State University (CSU) scientists have provided experimental evidence supporting dromedary camels as the primary reservoir, or carrier, of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). The study, designed by scientists from CSU and NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, involved three healthy camels exposed through the eyes, nose and throat to MERS-CoV isolated from a patient. Each camel developed a mild upper respiratory tract infection consistent with what scientists have observed throughout ...

When David beats Goliath

2014-09-24

Body size has long been recognized to play a key role in shaping species interactions, with larger species usually winning conflicts with their smaller counterparts. But Queen's University biologist Paul Martin has found that occasionally, small species of birds can dominate larger species during aggressive interactions, particularly when they interact with distantly related species. The new findings provide evidence that the evolution of certain traits can allow species to overcome the disadvantage of a smaller size. "We want to understand why species live where they ...

Interactive website helps lower-income smokers to stop smoking

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: