Ottawa Public Health and the Canadian Cancer Society are offering Centretown quitters a chance to win big next month.
Smokers who avoid tobacco for the month of March could win a 2009 Chevrolet Malibu hybrid, one of two vacation getaways or one of seven regional prizes in Ontario’s Driven to Quit Challenge.
“The majority of smokers want to quit someday,” says Carol McDonald, OPH supervisor of tobacco control. “The challenge gives the incentive and support to help them make a quit attempt today.”
The Driven to Quit Challenge is open to anyone over the age of 19 who has used tobacco for a year or more.
Last year, over 26,000 people signed up for the challenge and, according to CCS, the prize winners are still smoke-free today.
McDonald says the success of the Driven to Quit Challenge lies in its multi-level support system.
Participants are encouraged to access the CCS Smokers’ Helpline provided by the province and to connect with community support groups. They’re also required to register with a “buddy” to keep them accountable during the challenge.
“One person told me their ‘quit buddy’ went on every work break with them for the entire month,” says McDonald. “That extra encouragement makes the difference, because not everyone can reach out when they’re feeling vulnerable.”
Smokers who access support services double their chances of quitting in a month, compared to those who do it alone, say researchers from the UK Centre for Tobacco Control in the upcoming edition of Addiction journal.
While Driven to Quit brochures disappear fast from the Centretown Community Health Centre, it’s not because the challenge promises support, says health promoter Janet Edwards.
“It’s the car,” she says. “Quitting is a process and without an immediate reason to quit, people can get frustrated and give up.”
The challenge is part of a global trend in health initiatives offering prizes to entice good habits. Last year, an American study entered participants into a draw whenever they took medication on schedule and a British anti-drug program rewarded rehabilitation with cash.
“The thou-shalt-quit attitude doesn’t work,” says Barbara Hollander, senior co-ordinator of the CCS Smokers’ Helpline. “People don’t quit through willpower. It takes skill-power, using every available tool and motivator, to kick the habit.”
Local high schools have picked up on the trend too, says Claire McManus, co-ordinator of the exposé anti-smoking program at the Glebe Collegiate Institute.
Student smokers too young to participate in Driven to Quit could still win hundreds of dollars in gift certificates in the school’s annual iQuit and Win contest.
Even so, appeals to individual smokers are futile without broad stroke polices that target the tobacco industry, says Pippa Beck, president of the Ottawa Council on Smoking and Health.
“If this were the bubonic plague, we’d be after the rats,” she says. “This industry is producing a product that, when used exactly as intended, kills half of all its long-term users.”
Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death in Ontario, killing over 13,000 people annually. Cigarette smoking alone causes 800 deaths each year among Ottawa adults over the age of 35.
Registration for the Challenge is open until Feb. 28, 2009.
For more information or to register for the Driven to Quit Challenge, visit www.driventoquit.ca or call the CCS Smokers’ Helpline at 1-877-513-5333.