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- October 04, 2007

What marks a successful quitter


From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Many try to quit smoking, and some succeed. What makes for success? Researcher Chung-won Lee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention examined that by checking what people said in national surveys. Lee looked at people who got unhooked and compared them to people who didn’t.

``Having a smoke-free home increased the odds of successful quitting by 10 times – also having a no-smoking policy at work.’’ (8 seconds)

So did being 35 or older, having a college education, and being married.

Now, you can’t do much about how old you are, and you might not be college-educated or married. But Lee says you and your family can say no to smoking at home, and the company could say no to smoking at work.

The study was in the American Journal of Public Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: May, 26 2008