Computer Program Helps Women Kick Nicotine Habit.

2001 APR 19 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Despite massive mandatory warning labels on cigarette packages and massive anti-smoking advertising campaigns, American women are lighting up in greater numbers and now account for 39% of all smoking-related deaths in the United States, the U.S. Surgeon General warned in a March 27, 2001, report.

Anna McDaniel, DNS. RN associate professor at the Indiana University School of Nursing at Indiana University Purdue University-Indianapolis and an affiliated scientist at the Regenstrief Institute for Health Care, has developed and tested "A New Beginning," an interactive smoking cessation computer program targeting low-income women. It appears to be getting its message across: more than half the women (52%) who were exposed to the program reported that they cut down on smoking within one week and 15% reported that they tried to quit smoking in that first week.

The interactive computer program personalizes the process by allowing an individual to respond according to her level of interest in kicking the nicotine habit. The computer program fills the gap in a setting where busy doctors and nurses often are unable to spend much time with their patients discussing the specific reasons why the individual smokes and how best to motivate her to stop smoking.

McDaniel developed and tested "A New Beginning" as part of her two-year post-doctoral fellowship in informatics at the Regenstrief Institute. Individuals were asked to respond to visual prompts by touching the screen. McDaniel found that the 100 low-income women in the study enjoyed the simple computer interaction. What they liked the best, she reported, was that the computer program was able to provide them with information specifically tailored to the reasons they smoked. Factors motivating these women to smoke included stress, desire to stay thin, and frequently finding themselves in situations conducive to smoking.

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