A survey of more than 6,000 Wisconsin residents shows that 78 percent of current smokers have tried to quit, but more than 50 percent of them are still using the "cold turkey" method and most relapse within a week.

"We now have a number of medications and counseling strategies that can greatly increase quit rates - nicotine replacement therapies, Zyban, telephone counseling," said Dr. Michael Fiore, director of the Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention at the UW-Madison Medical School. "But many people are either unaware or cannot afford these treatments." Smokers are making multiple, unsuccessful attempts to quit, according to the 2001 How Smokers Are Quitting survey by the center, in cooperation with the UW Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Wisconsin Tobacco Control Board. Close to 70 percent of Wisconsin smokers have tried to quit between one and five times. By three months, 90 percent of current smokers have relapsed to smoking, the survey found. Among current smokers, the nicotine patch (14 percent) was the second-most commonly used method of quitting after "cold turkey" (more than 50 percent), followed by cutting back (11 percent) in third place. The survey was taken before the Wisconsin Tobacco Quit Line had been in place for than a few months, and the hot line thus was not a factor. Use of nicotine replacement therapies, including nicotine gum, the patch, and nasal sprays, or of prescription drugs, can double or triple quit rates, Fiore said. Almost 30 percent of smokers reported that they had not made a quit attempt in at least two years, possibly indicating that some are becoming discouraged because of numerous failures, Fiore said. "This paper indicates that we need to increase awareness of modern treatments, we need to promote free treatments and we need to conduct more research on special populations so that we can help them quit smoking," Fiore said. The survey shows that differences exist between income groups in their choice of stop smoking methods. Higher income people were twice as likely to use the prescription drugs Zyban or Wellbutrin as an aid to quit smoking, than people with lower incomes. Racial and ethnic differences also were noted in the survey results. American Indians made more quit attempts, of shorter duration. The survey found that 91 percent of American Indian smokers had made a serious quit attempt, followed by Asian Americans at 82 percent, whites at 74 percent, blacks at 60 percent and Hispanics at 46 percent.

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