Table 4.

Major Findings

1. Most smokers had multiple, and often rapid, attempts to stop or reduce during the 12 weeks.

2. Intentions to not smoke the next day often did not result in a quit attempt (16%), but most intentions to quit in the next week or month did so (60% and 62%). Intentions were strong prospective predictors of quit attempts and abstinence (odds ratios 3.3–35.0). Setting a quit date was rare (21%) and showed a nonsignificant trend to predict greater abstinence.

3. Most smokers (60%) attempted to quit or reduce multiple times during the study.

4. The longest quit attempt lasted less than a day on 48% of quit attempts. Few (18%) were abstinent at the end of the study.

5. Three fourths of quit attempts (72%) were unplanned (i.e., were not preceded by an intention not to smoke the next day). Planned quit attempts lasted longer (25 days vs. 1 day) than unplanned quit attempts.

6. Use of treatments was common, and treatment was nonsignificantly associated with greater abstinence (14 days vs. 3 days).

7. Quitting and failing early on predicted increased, not decreased, quit attempts later (86% vs. 67%). Repeat quit attempts were not less successful than the initial quit attempt.

8. On a retrospective survey, smokers often (17%) failed to report brief quit attempts.