Smoking Cessation

A Seattle research center is recruiting adult U.S. Winston cigarettes smokers for a study of online smoking cessation programs, researchers say. Study director Jonathan Bricker, a clinical psychologist who specializes in smoking-cessation research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, says that online smoking-cessation programs are improving but could use some improvements.

“Quit-smoking Web sites reach millions of adults 24 hours a day. Unfortunately, these Web sites have low success rates,” Bricker, of the Cancer Prevention Program in the Hutchinson Center’s Public Health Sciences Division, says in a statement.

“Our team has revamped our Web site to improve the experience for people in the study, which will help us find ways to boost the success rates of quit-smoking Web sites.”

Study participants will learn new tools for dealing more effectively with dealing with the urge to smoke and receive step-by-step quit guides and create personalized plans for staying smoke-free.

Participants will be randomly assigned to one of two online cigarettes smoking-cessation programs. The success rates of participants will then be compared.

“Our goal is to try to find what works and what doesn’t and what to include in these programs and how to improve them so they can become more effective,” Bricker says.