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To smoke or not to smoke: What is the cost?
April 6, 1997
Web posted at: 8:38 p.m. EDT (0038 GMT)In this story:
- Cold turkey cheapest but hardest
- Behavior modification increases success
- First-day abstinence key to success
- Related stories and sites
From Correspondent Valerie Morris
NEW YORK (CNN) -- About a third of the estimated 48 million adult smokers in the United States try to quit each year. But only about 10 percent actually succeed in kicking the habit for a year or more.
If news about health risks isn't sufficiently motivating the other 90 percent, perhaps a careful look inside their wallets might help.
The average American smoker puffs more than a pack of cigarettes a day, spending $750 to $1,000 a year just on smokes. Also, smoking-related illnesses cost the U.S. economy $97 billion annually in health care and lost worker productivity.
Quitting, on the other hand, is much less expensive.
Cold turkey cheapest but hardest
Giving up tobacco cold turkey is the cheapest way to go and the most common. But it is also the hardest, with only an 8 percent success rate.
"By 2 o'clock in the afternoon, I was just getting really anxious and irritable," says former smoker Wendy Schechter of her cold turkey experience. "I started fighting with my husband and my friends. It was really painful."
Schechter found help with a nicotine patch, which replaces the agent in cigarettes that quitting smokers so crave. Over- the-counter nicotine substitutes, designed to wean smokers away from their habit within 12 weeks, cost between $180 and $300.
But some experts warn that using a nicotine substitute alone won't do the trick.
Behavior modification increases success
"The patch or the gum, by themselves, aren't all that effective," says John Garrison, managing director of the American Lung Association. "You've got maybe a 15 percent chance of success that way."
"You must also deal with behavior modification, so when you combine the patch with freedom-from-smoking programs, such as the American Lung Association's, you then have a better than 30 percent chance of quitting smoking," Garrison says.
The association's group program costs between $65 and $150. Other behavior therapy programs, such as Smoke Enders, can run from $150 to $320.
"I would definitely recommend Smoke Enders," says former smoker James Sears. "It was something that was able to lessen my nicotine intake, so by the cutoff time, it was rather easy to quit."
First-day abstinence key to success
In calculating the cost of quitting, keep in mind that for many people, it may take more than one try to give up cigarettes.
A recent study at Duke University showed that the success or failure of an attempt to quit may be determined on the first day. Smokers who abstain completely on day one are 10 times more likely to remain smoke-free for six months than those who light up even just one or two cigarettes.
If the method of quitting first selected doesn't seem to be working, experts say give it up and try another approach, rather than continue through an entire course of treatment.
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