Judith Prochaska, PhD, MPH, of the Stanford Prevention Research Center, Stanford, CA, talks about a study which looked at how people use twitter support groups to stop smoking. She explains that funding was received from the national insutute of drug abuse to study virtual peer to peer groups used on twitter. It was found that support groups double the likelihood of people quitting out at 60 days follow up. Furthermore, there was about 40%, compared to 20% of people who had continuous abstinence since their quit day.
Dr Prochaska goes on to talk about a second more recent larger randomised control study with about 1000 participants. This study is looking at the difference between female only support groups and mixed support groups. The follow up time of this trial is longer and biochemical verification will be done to confirm patients have quit.
Recorded at the American Society of Oncology (ASCO) 2017 Annual Meeting held in Chicago, IL.
