New Study Finds Going Online Helps
Smokers Quit
Online Support Communities Helped 62
Percent Successfully End the Habit
College Park, Md. December 4,
2006 For smokers who count kicking
the habit as their top 2007 New Years
resolution, going online might offer the
key to success, according to new
research released today from the
University of Marylands Robert H. Smith
School of Business. The study, With a
Little Help from Strangers: Social
Support and Smoking Cessation in Online
Communities, analyzed the effectiveness
of Internet support networks in helping
smokers quit and found that more than 62
percent of respondents reported they
successfully abandoned cigarettes after
joining a smoking cessation support
community.
According to the American Lung
Associations Trends in Tobacco Use,
published in January 2006, most smokers
in the U.S. say that they want to stop
smoking, but 20.9 percent of adults
continued to smoke as of 2004. The same
report included 2000 National Health
Interview Survey information stating
that less than 10 percent of smokers
have long-term success quitting.
This study shows quantitatively that
once you make the decision to quit
smoking, joining an online community
increases your chances of meeting your
goal, said Professor Ritu Agarwal,
study co-author and Deans Chair of
Information Systems at the University of
Marylands Robert H. Smith School of
Business. On the Web, you can
selectively surround yourself with
people who offer only positive
encouragement. Whereas, real life does
not offer a filter button and
sometimes friends and family are not as
supportive as one would hope.
For the study, Agarwal and her
co-author, Smith School PhD graduate
Jessie Ma examined the online behavior
of 411 Quitnet.com users who were able
to get support 24/7 from their quitting
buddies by visiting the site and posting
on the Web forums.
The members were strangers to one
another, but had shared goals and
similar experiences, said Agarwal.
Study results showed having this large
support network and receiving
understanding and respect were essential
success factors.
Key research findings offer tips to
smokers who want to use an online
support community for help quitting:
-
Make lots of contacts. The more
people community members interacted
with, the more likely they were to
stay on the straight-and-narrow.
Respondents who quit averaged nearly
75 quitting buddies, compared to
only about 28 for those who didnt
quit.
-
Post often. The more time a
member spent on the Web with the
community, the less likely he or she
would continue smoking. Those who
interacted with the online community
for 18 months had a better quitting
success rate than those who had only
been members for five months.
-
Keep at it. The longer someone
stayed a community member, the
better chance he or she had of
continuing in his or her new
cigarette-free lifestyle, thanks to
the ongoing support of fellow
quitters. The 62 percent of members
who reported quitting after joining
the community had the longest tenure
on the site, more than three times
as long as those who did not report
quitting.
-
Be open and transparent. Members
who shared the most about themselves
and their struggles to quit felt a
greater sense of understanding and
identification from fellow community
members and had the most success in
their quest. Members who quit
reported a level of identity
consonance their identity
perception and how community members
acknowledged that identity nearly
20 percent higher than those who
didnt quit smoking.
The study was a project of the Smith
Schools Center
for Health Information and Decision
Systems (CHIDS), an academia-led
effort with collaboration from industry
and government affiliates, designed to
research, analyze and recommend
solutions to challenges surrounding the
introduction and integration of
information and decision technologies
into the health care system.
About the
Robert H. Smith School of Business
The Robert H. Smith School of Business is an
internationally recognized leader in
management education and research for the
digital economy. One of 13 colleges and
schools at the University of Maryland,
College Park, the Smith School offers
undergraduate, full-time and part-time MBA,
Executive MBA, Executive MS, PhD, and
non-degree executive education programs, as
well as outreach services to the corporate
community. The school offers its programs in
learning locations on four continents
including North America, Europe, Africa and
Asia.
