Smoking and Health News 2016: Being Lazy to Walk Long Distances for Cigarettes May Prompt Smokers to Quit Smoking
Laziness Will Get Smokers to Quit the Habit
If you need to walk long distances to go to a store for cigarettes, there's a big chance you'll quit smoking.
A new research discovered that the farther smokers have to walk to a store for cigarettes, the more likely they are going to quit the bad habit.
Longer distances can help smokers quit
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Researchers from the University of Turku found that the distance between their homes and the store to buy cigarettes affect the smoking behavior of smokers. In their research, they looked at two studies and analyzed more than 15,000 smokers, former smokers and more than 5,000 people who don't smoke in Finland.
The study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine found that for every one third of a mile that smokers have to walk for their cigarettes, there is more than 50 percent chance of them quitting the smoking habit. However, 7 percent of the participants took up the habit again or experienced relapse in the second study. Tech Times pointed out that the walking distance to the store did not cause people to have relapse.
Factors considered
The researchers speculated that it is not inherently the long distances or the laziness that made people quit smoking in the experiment. Newsweek pointed out that walking to the cigarette store decreases time and money for the smokers and these factors helped them quit smoking; especially when other factors such as health status and financial capability were taken into account.
The findings, however, cannot be applied to the US and other countries because Finland has stricter laws when it comes to tobacco and cigarette advertising. The Finnish government is also known to have firm anti-smoking policies for their citizens. It is also not known if the studies only apply to smokers in suburbs and residential areas or if it also applies in the workplace.
Study author Dr. Mika Kivimaki told Reuters in an email that their studies confirm some principles of taking away accessibility to products to curb smoking habits.
"Reduced availability of tobacco products, which was supported by our findings, complements public health policies that aim to create environments that facilitate integration of physical activity into daily lives and legislation that support healthful diet choices," Dr. Kivimaki said.
Do you agree that long distances discourage people from their smoking habits?
