Smoking Cessation Expert Explains Why Monday Could Help Quitters Stay Smoke Free After the Great American Smokeout

Newswise — The American Cancer Society holds its 39th Great American Smokeout on Thursday, Nov. 17th. Joining their cause to help smokers quit for good is the Quit & Stay Quit Monday (QSQM) initiative from The Monday Campaigns. It focuses on Monday as being the best day to quit smoking and to help stay quit. The QSQM goal is to use this year’s Great American Smokeout as the kickoff to kick the habit. In the weeks that follow, QSQM stands ready to provide proven tobacco cessation tips and tools to help quitters stay smoke free through the holidays and into the New Year. These resources are available for free at: http://www.quitmonday.org According to Joanna Cohen, PhD, director of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health Institute for Global Tobacco Control, “Campaigns for people to quit may benefit from shifting to weekly cues to increase the number of quit attempts participants make each year so they can ultimately quit for good. Monday is the day people are open to starting healthy behaviors and specifically quit smoking.” Dr. Cohen demonstrated this point in the JAMA Internal Medicine research letter she co-authored. The study analyzed eight years of Google searches and discovered that more people look for information on how to quit smoking on Monday than on any other day. This pattern was consistent in eight languages, including English, Chinese and Russian, indicating the interest in quitting on Monday is worldwide. Making Monday the day to quit has another distinct advantage. If smokers lapse in their attempts to quit, and many do, they can quickly try again on the following Monday, which increases their chance of eventual success. This is particularly important since a recent study, co-authored by Dr. Cohen, in the British Medical Journal reported smokers may try quitting as many as 30 times before ridding themselves of their nicotine habit. About Q&SQM and The Monday Campaigns Quit & Stay Quit Monday is a program of The Monday Campaigns, a nonprofit organization working in association with The Lerner Centers for Public Health Promotion at Johns Hopkins, Columbia and Syracuse universities. These programs dedicate the first day of every week to health, and support a global movement of individuals and organizations committed to public health and ending preventable diseases.