WORLD> Health
|
WORLD> Health
|
|
Friends quit smoking? You probably will too
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-05-22 11:18 "One person in the group gets the motivation to quit and it starts to cascade and ripple through the group," said Fowler. Jill Palmer, 28, was a one-pack-a-day smoker until she checked into a cessation program last year at the University of Wisconsin, Madison where she works. She took nicotine gum and worked with a counselor to set a "quit date." Several days after Palmer went smoke-free, her husband threw away his last pack. "It was spurred by my timing. He didn't want to be a smoker anymore," said Palmer, who credits her nonsmoking co-workers with persuading her to enroll in the cessation program. The researchers also found, by analyzing random samples of smoking clusters, that whole groups became nonsmokers over time. People who remained smokers found themselves moving to the fringe of their social circles. Cigarette smoking kills about 400,000 people in the United States every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 45 million US adults are smokers, though the prevalence has fallen dramatically since the 1960s. Stanley Wasserman, an Indiana University statistician who studies social networks, noted that while the study was cleverly done, it does have its limitations. Wasserman said it's hard to tease out whether social influence is mainly responsible for a whole group kicking the habit. Other factors such as public bans on smoking or studies highlighting the harmful effects of smoking may also play a role. "You can't prove it with this data," he said. "You have to go to people and ask, 'Why did you stop smoking?'" |
