For National Non-Smoking Week, the BC Lung Association has introduced a new contest and quit smoking support website – just for guys – in partnership with a group of UBC researchers: www.QuitNowMen.ca
B.C. may have the lowest smoking rate in Canada, that doesn’t mean good news for everyone. Despite the overall improvement, men continue to smoke at much higher rates than women (30 per cent higher), and this gap has only gotten wider over the last decade.
Despite the fact that more men smoke, and that they also try to quit smoking at a similar rate as women, much fewer men seem to be using the BC Lung Association’s online QuitNow.ca quit smoking tools and services (which includes free phone and instant chat with professional cessation councillors and a community forum).
Research has shown that the one-size fits all approach to behavioral change just doesn’t work.
Men and women smoke for different reasons, quit in different ways, and respond to different approaches.
That’s why the Association created QuitNowMen.ca.
Informed by UBC research on men and smoking cessation, the new website is straightforward to use, with to-the-point information.
Men prefer to quit ‘Cold Turkey’. They don’t want the same amount of help as women do, but instead want straight forward, easy to access information. The site is as straight forward as possible, with clear and easy to follow info, and it is optimized for mobile viewing, so it’s easy to use on a smart phone or tablet.
To get the word out about QuitNowMen.ca – and motivate men to set a date and make a serious attempt to quit smoking - the BC Lung Association launched a new quit and win contest this week.
The contest challenges B.C. men to quit for one week (February 1 to 7, 2015) for a chance to win one of two $2,500 cash.
The number one preventable cause of death and disease for men is smoking.
The average number of cigarettes smoked each day by men in B.C. in 2013 was just under 14.
The number of men in 2013 who smoked in B.C. was 15.2 per cent (compared to 11.3 per cent for women).
People who smoke in the Northern Health region of B.C. total 24 per cent.
The percentage of smokers who say they want to quit in the next year is 68.9 per cent.
The percentage of all lung cancer cases in Canada attributed to smoking is 85.
Six thousand British Columbians die each year from tobacco-related diseases.
The estimated cost of tobacco use to the B.C. economy each year, including health care costs from treating tobacco-related illnesses, increased sick time, and lower productivity is $2.3 billion.
The BC Lung Association developed QuitNowMen.ca together with a University of British Columbia research group committed to finding original ways to support young families in their efforts to become tobacco-free (FACET- Families Controlling and Eliminating Tobacco). Funding for the site was provided by the Canadian Cancer Society (Grant #701615) and the BC Ministry of Health.