For National Non-Smoking Week, the BC Lung Association has introduced a new contest and quit smoking support website – just for guys – in partnership with a group of UBC researchers: www.QuitNowMen.ca
B.C. may have the lowest smoking rate in Canada, but that doesn’t mean good news for everyone.
Despite the overall improvement, men continue to smoke at much higher rates than women (30 per cent higher), and this gap has only gotten wider over the last decade.
Although more men smoke, and they also try to quit smoking at a similar rate as women, much fewer men seem to be using the BC Lung Association’s online QuitNow.ca quit smoking tools and services (which includes free phone and instant chat with professional cessation councillors and a community forum).
Research has shown that the one-size fits all approach to behavioral change just doesn’t work.
Men and women smoke for different reasons, quit in different ways, and respond to different approaches. That’s why the Association created QuitNowMen.ca.
Informed by UBC research on men and smoking cessation, the new website is straightforward to use, with to-the-point information.
Men prefer to quit ‘cold turkey’. They don’t want the same amount of help as women do, but instead want straight forward, easy to access information.
The site is as straight forward as possible, with clear and easy to follow info, and it is optimized for mobile viewing, so it's easy to use on a smartphone or tablet.
To get the word out about QuitNowMen.ca – and motivate men to set a date and make a serious attempt to quit smoking – the BC Lung Association launched a new quit and win contest this week.
The contest challenges B.C. men to quit for one week (Feb. 1 to 7, 2015) for a chance to win one of two $2,500 cash prizes.