Fewer young smokers seek help to kick the habit

By Anne Harding

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Younger smokers trying to quit are less likely than older smokers to use effective strategies like patches or medication to help them kick the habit, a new study shows.

"It's great that young adult smokers are motivated to quit, and it's disappointing that they're not using what we know works when they try," Dr. Susan J. Curry of the University of Illinois at Chicago, the study's lead author, told Reuters Health.

Past research has shown that young smokers have a tougher time quitting than older smokers, Curry and her team note in the American Journal of Public Health. To investigate the use of smoking cessation treatments and determine if they varied by age, the researchers analyzed data on 6,511 smokers from the 2005 National Health Interview Survey.

Just 4 to 5 percent of all smokers sought behavioral treatment help -- for example, counseling or a class or group -- the researchers found. In comparison, 32.5 percent of smokers 25 and older had tried medication -- for example, nicotine gum or Zyban -- compared to 17.7 percent of smokers 24 and younger.

Overall, 33.5 percent of the older smokers had used behavioral treatment or drug therapy, while 19.6 percent of younger smokers had.

Younger smokers were more likely to say they relied on support from friends or family to help them quit.

The researchers also found that while 60.2 percent of the older smokers had been advised to quit by their doctor or another health professional, just 49 percent of younger smokers had. People who had received this professional advice were more likely to have tried drug therapy for assistance in quitting.

Current smoking cessation and prevention efforts focus heavily on older people with chronic smoking-related illness, as well as younger people who haven't yet started to smoke, which may mean younger adults are falling through the cracks, Curry said. "I don't think that we've made young adults a serious target," she commented. "We've kind of lost them in the shuffle of cessation options."

Also, she added, younger smokers tend to have misconceptions about smoking cessation treatment, thinking that nicotine in patches or gums causes cancer, for example.

More research is needed to find out how best to reach younger smokers with information on options available to them to help them quit, Curry and her team conclude.

SOURCE: American Journal of Public Health, June 2007.