Quit, Buddy

If people you know stop smoking, you're more likely to quit too, a study published in New England Journal of Medicine on May 22, 2008 has found. You're influenced by the people you know and even by the people they know, researchers said.

The study used a detailed set of data on 12,067 people. All were part of the 30-year Framingham Heart Study. The study found that if your spouse quits smoking, you're 67% less likely to continue. If a friend quits, the odds that you'll keep puffing drop 36%. Even if your friend's sister or your husband's co-worker quits, you're more likely to quit too.

What Is the Doctor's Reaction?

There are many ways to kick the smoking habit. Some people use nicotine gum or patches. Others try prescription drugs such as bupropion (Zyban) or varenicline (Chantix). Counseling, hypnosis or some combination can also be effective. Many smokers quit on their own with none of these treatments.

But according to a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine, social networks also make a difference. Whether you smoke and whether you quit may depend in large part on the smoking habits of your friends and family.

The researchers examined how the connections between people affect their likelihood of smoking. The study included more than 12,000 people.

Here's what it found:

• People were 67% less likely to smoke if a spouse quit.
• They were 36% less likely to smoke if a friend quit. This effect was strongest when both people named the other person as a friend. The impact was smaller when only one of the pair said the other person was a friend.
• In the workplace, people were 34% less likely to smoke if a coworker quit.
• People were 25% less likely to smoke if a sibling quit.

It's notable that a neighbor's behavior had little effect on a person's chances of smoking. This suggests that the pattern of smoking cessation in an area is more than just the effects of environment. For example, a local quit-smoking program or the price of cigarettes might affect neighbors in a similar way. Yet, smoking behavior was more closely linked to social connections than to living near each other.

This new study's findings suggest social networks have a powerful impact not only on smoking but also on quitting. In fact, smoking has declined dramatically in the United States during the last 40 years. From the data in this latest research, it appears that people don't quit randomly. Instead, they tend to quit in socially connected "clusters."

Recognizing the effect of social connections on smoking behavior should have an important effect on smoking cessation programs. For example, it may be less important how you try to quit than whether people around you are helping you or trying to quit themselves.