Interest in gradual cessation.

Prior surveys have not determined smokers' interest in gradual cessation. In Study 1A, we advertised in six U.S. east coast newspapers for "smokers who plan to quit smoking" to participate in a nontreatment study. Among the 461 respondents, 66% planned to reduce and then stop smoking, 13% planned to stop abruptly, and 21% reported they planned to reduce but not quit. In Study 1B, we ran a similar ad but asked for "smokers who plan to reduce their smoking." Among the 263 respondents, 57% planned to reduce and then stop smoking and 33% planned to reduce but not stop smoking. In Study 2, we asked 125 smokers to rate their interest in quitting smoking (on a 1-10 scale) given two scenarios. When nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) was not mentioned, interest in gradual cessation was high and was higher than interest in abrupt cessation (6.9 and 4.7, respectively, p<.0001). When NRT was assumed to be available for gradual or abrupt cessation, interest in gradual cessation remained high (7.1) and was similar to that for abrupt cessation (7.0). In both scenarios, over three-fourths of smokers were at least as interested in gradual cessation as they were in abrupt cessation.