November 19, 2007
Thunder Bay - Two hundred and fifty smokers in the District of Thunder Bay will get the help they need to quit smoking with free nicotine replacement therapy. By participating in the STOP Study, ‘Smoking Treatment for Ontario Patients’, eligible smokers will receive ten weeks of free nicotine replacement therapy as gum, patches or inhalers.
The STOP Study, conducted by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health partnering with NorWest Community Health Centre and Smokers’ Helpline, will host five stop smoking workshops in four of our district communities; Marathon, Longlac, Schreiber and Thunder Bay. These three-hour workshops will provide smokers with information on how to use nicotine replacement therapy and assistance in preparing a personal quit plan. Free nicotine therapy will be available at the completion of the workshop.
“If people are able to quit sooner, they may be able to prevent the onset of serious illnesses brought on by smoking,” says Dr. Peter Selby, clinical director of addiction programs, CAMH and principal investigator of the STOP Study. ‘This study will allow us to help people along the process and monitor which quit methods are most effective. This way we will be able to better treat people in the future.” he adds
Started in 2006, the STOP Study has already distributed free nicotine replacement therapies such as the nicotine gum, patches and nicotine inhalers to more than 20,000 adults. In return, participating smokers will try to stop smoking while using nicotine replacement therapy. Three follow-up telephone calls, spaced over the next twelve months will help the researchers learn more about the long-term impact of using nicotine replacement on quitting smoking and remaining smoke-free. Using nicotine therapy when quitting smoking is the standard recommended therapy for the alleviation of nicotine withdrawal symptoms.
Interested smokers should phone the Thunder Bay District Health Unit at 625-5974 (regional callers 1-888-294-6630 ext.5974) to find out if they qualify to participate in the study. One hundred eligible participants in Thunder Bay will be invited to attend a workshop on either November 29th or December 2nd. As well, three workshops will be held in the regional communities of Marathon on November 30th and Schreiber and Longlac on December 1st. This will benefit another one hundred and fifty smokers. Previous to these dates three similar STOP Study workshops, organized by the Northwestern Health Unit, will occur in Fort Frances on November 26th, Red Lake on November 27th and Sioux Lookout on November 28th.
In March of this year two hundred and twenty-one smokers attended five STOP workshops held in Dryden, Kenora and Thunder Bay.
The STOP Study is funded by Smoke Free Ontario, Ministry of Health Promotion.
More information is available on the Health Unit’s website at www.tbdhu.com
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Background: The STOP Study
Introduced in January 2006 through a partnership of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and the Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion, the STOP Study has already provided free nicotine replacement therapy such as nicotine gum or patches to an unprecedented 20,000 people and helped more than 2,600 Ontarians quit smoking.
To date at least 12 per cent of participants in the study have successfully quit smoking and stayed off tobacco for six months as a direct result of the nicotine replacement therapy supplied by CAMH. This compares with normal quit rates of 7 per cent for Ontarians under the age of 45, and 3 per cent for those over 45 years of age.
The effectiveness of the nicotine replacement therapy for study participants will be monitored for 12 months. To date, study results have shown an improvement of between two and four times the typical quitting rates.
While smoking rates in Ontario have declined over the past twenty years, 1.6 million Ontarians continue to smoke and 16,000 die each year from the effects of tobacco products.
Studies reveal that attempts to quit smoking are more successful when done with the help of a nicotine cessation aid. However, many people do not use this resource, often due to cost. By demonstrating the numbers who quit when given free access to nicotine replacement therapies, the STOP Study shows that access is a significant factor.