PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - John A. Cunningham, PhD
AU  - Peter L. Selby, MBBS
TI  - Intentions of smokers to use free nicotine replacement therapy
AID  - 10.1503/cmaj.071241
DP  - 2008 Jul 15
TA  - Canadian Medical Association Journal
PG  - 145--146
VI  - 179
IP  - 2
4099  - http://www.cmaj.ca/content/179/2/145.short
4100  - http://www.cmaj.ca/content/179/2/145.full
SO  - CMAJ2008 Jul 15; 179
AB  - Public health initiatives to distribute nicotine replacement therapy free of charge as a means of promoting smoking cessation are ongoing. Are there enough smokers interested in using nicotine replacement therapy to have a substantial impact on the prevalence of smoking if this aid were distributed free to all interested smokers? We conducted a telephone survey of 825 randomly selected daily smokers aged 18 years or older who had smoked at least 10 cigarettes per day at some point in their lives. Overall, 58.9% of the respondents said they would be interested in nicotine replacement therapy if it were offered for free. Of those interested, almost all (93.8%) said that they would use the nicotine replacement therapy to help them quit for good. There were differences in the levels of interest: smokers who intended to quit were more interested in using the nicotine replacement therapy than those who planned to reduce or maintain their smoking.