Cutting down helps smokers quit

Cutting down on the number of cigarettes smoked can help older smokers kick the habit, according to a Yale study.

“Most experts will say there is only one way to quit smoking and that is to stop smoking altogether,” said Tracy A. Falba, Ph.D., associate research scientist in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health and lead author of the study, which was published in Addiction, the journal of the Society for the Study of Addiction. “Cutting down the number of cigarettes smoked, however, seems to promote quitting. Cutting down first may be an option for people trying to quit.”

The study used data from a national study of Americans between the ages of 51 and 61, but the concept could apply to smokers of any age, Falba said.