A new study found that most smokers choose Monday as the best day for them to quit smoking.
A group of researchers from The Monday Campaigns, a non-profit health initiative associated with John Hopkins, observed that the number of visitors to government website Smokefree.gov peaked on Mondays. The website is supported by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, and National Cancer Institute which offers professional and social guidance to people who want to quit smoking.
The researchers also analyzed Google searches for terms like “quit smoking help” in six different languages including Chinese, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian. They discovered searches about quitting smoking make up a greater proportion of all searches on Mondays compared to any other days of the week from 2008 to 2012.
On average, there are 25 percent more quit-smoking searches on Mondays than on other days.
Morgan Johnson, research director for the Monday Campaigns, explained the link between Mondays and quitting smoking, “People see Mondays as a fresh start, a chance to get their acts together.”
The findings of this study will benefit health advocates who would like to develop more effective strategies and campaigns in convincing people to quit smoking. That might mean using online ads especially on Mondays and fully staffing quit lines to accommodate more calls.
Most smokers often plan quitting smoking during New Year’s Day or on their birthdays. However, the new study gives advocates an opportunity to tell people that they don’t need to wait for another year to pass because they could always try it again the following week if the current week fails.
Tom Glynn, senior director of cancer science and trends at the American Cancer Society, Atlanta, said that the big day and weekly approaches to stopping tobacco smoking is a great idea. He told USA Today, “We always tell smokers that when they slip, it's not a failure, it's just part of the process.”
The study was published in the Oct. 28 issue of the JAMA Internal Medicine.
