Telephone 'quitlines' in 33 states help smokers stop, study says

A decade after California became the first of 33 states to set up "quitlines" for smokers, a study found telephone counseling works for those who want to kick the habit.

Smaller tests done before the free services started showed the technique was effective. But researchers at the University of California at San Diego, which runs the state's quitline, wanted to see if that was true once the program started.

Their findings, reported in today's New England Journal of Medicine, show that smokers who were counseled stopped smoking at twice the rate of those who did not get such help.

"These statewide telephone counseling services really help people," said Shu-Hong Zhu, who directs the help line. "All they have to do is pick up the phone."

Two years ago, Renee Haapanen turned to the California Smokers' Helpline when she wanted to quit. Now, as she makes her rounds as a gas meter reader, she doesn't need to take a smoking break.

"I knew it wouldn't be easy. And it was so worth it," she said.

Most of the state quitlines were started in the last three years, and some states are using their share of the 1998 national tobacco settlement to pay for them.

Florida's quitline is 1-800-227-2345.

States like telephone services because they reach more people than group programs, are available nights and weekends, and spare participants from having to find transportation or day care, said Angela Geiger, director of 10 state quitlines that the American Cancer Society runs.

"Quitting smoking is really, really hard. So we've tried to make these quit-lines as easy as possible for the person trying to quit," she said.

To test the California service, the researchers enrolled 3,282 callers in the study. All received a packet of self-help information in the mail. One group received an average of three counseling sessions. A second group only got counseling if they called back as instructed.

After a month, 21 percent of those who got counseling had quit, compared with 10 percent of those who did not get counseling. Many smokers relapsed, and after a year, the rates had dropped to 8 percent and 4 percent.

Compound helps grow bone

In a promising discovery for more than 40-million Americans facing osteoporosis, researchers have found that a synthesized form of vitamin D can grow bone in lab animals experiencing bone wasting.

"We've got a compound that is very selective for bone. It is very effective in animals," said Hector DeLuca, a biochemist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and lead author of the study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

DeLuca and colleagues developed the vitamin D analog as part of an ongoing search for new drugs to help treat bone wasting that typically occurs in older adults. The disease is marked by diminished bone density that ultimately leaves bones brittle and prone to fracture.

The compound, 2MD, acts at very low concentrations and appears to work by promoting the growth of osteoblasts, the cells responsible for making bone.

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