All smokers will tell you: quitting smoking is (much) easier said than done … Conducted among 1,103 regular smokers in France, a new Ifop / Pfizer survey sheds new light on behavior of these in the face of stopping smoking.
We first learn that in France, 7 out of 10 smokers (69%) have already tried to say “goodbye” to cigarettes – 42% of them have even tried it several times. Problem: as part of their anti-smoking approach, only 11% of smokers have chosen to be accompanied by a health professional (37% of them by a tobacco specialist, 36% by a general practitioner); 52% (1 in 2 smokers) preferred to try it solo; 37% have turned to alternative therapies, such as hypnosis or sophrology. 24% of regular smokers claim that willpower alone is enough to quit smoking.
“These results reveal to what extent smoking cessation is a complicated process, far from being considered light or carefree by most smokers” analyzes Fabienne Gomant, deputy director of Ifop.
Stress, social pressure and … weight gain
The reasons for the failure? Stress, for 37% of French smokers, who confide in having resumed smoking after a difficult period. But other, more insidious reasons also emerge: for example, 12% of people questioned resumed smoking because they had been offered a cigarette, 10% because they lived with a smoker on a daily basis and 9% … because of the weight gain that occurs in parallel with smoking cessation.
“The main difficulties encountered by smokers who begin to quit smoking are both physical – for example withdrawal effects, weight gain – and social which manifest themselves in difficulties in going out, in dealing with social situations or in be in the presence of other smokers ”, indicates Dr Anne-Laurence Le Faou, head of the outpatient addiction center at the Georges Pompidou European Hospital in Paris.
As a reminder, in France, tobacco remains the leading cause of preventable death with 78,000 deaths per year, including 47,000 from cancer. What if we stop?
Source: Pfizer press release.
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