The first group followed the simplest nicotine gum program, which consists of the gum and an audio taped user's guide that comes with the gum. The second group, in addition to the gum and the audio tape, received the Committed Quitters materials. And the third group received all the materials plus a phone call two days after their quitting date to see how they were doing. Six weeks after stopping the program, 36.2 percent of the smokers who had used the personalized program were still not smoking compared to 24.7 percent of those who used the gum and audio tape. These figures are very encouraging, Shiffman says.
Addictions are hard to quit.
The American Lung Association reports the same low success rates for smokers who quit cold turkey, without help. But lung association spokesman Alex Steinberg of New York's Hudson Valley chapter says that smokers who sign on with one of his organization's stop-smoking programs do as well, if not better, than those in the Nicorette study. These are time-tested professional techniques used in medical settings. Smoking is still a national problem, however. Although smoking rates have declined steadily since the 1960s, there are still 48 million smokers in the United States, almost one-quarter of the adult population, according to 1997 lung association statistics.