Immediate Release
January 5, 2012
Batavia, Ohio. If you made a New Year’s resolution to quit smoking in 2012, some free help is available. Adults, 18 and older, who are currently smoking on a daily basis and live in Clermont County, can now participate in the OSU Quit Smoking Project, a research partnership between the Ohio State University College of Public Health and OSU Extension-Clermont. Participants in the study will receive up to eight weeks of free nicotine patches and telephone support. Those with major health issues or who are pregnant are not eligible for the study. Only 61 people will be admitted to the program, and must commit to participate in the follow-up research, even if they do not quit smoking.
The purpose of the study is to find out how effective telephone support and patches are for smokers in the Appalachian region of Ohio. Participants will be asked a set of questions before they start the project, and there will be a follow-up questionnaire three, six, and twelve months after the beginning of the study. Participants will receive a small gift card after each data collection to thank them for their time.
Clermont County is one of six counties in Ohio’s Appalachian region selected to participate in this project over the next several years, partly because of the high rate of smoking across the area. According to the 2008 Ohio Family Health Survey, 29.6 percent of adults in Clermont County smoke; the statewide smoking rate in Ohio in 2008 was 20.1 percent.
The OSU Quit Smoking Project is funded by the National Cancer Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health. For additional information, or if you are interested in participating in the project, call Debi Parm at 635-8595.
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For additional information about this or other county news, contact Clermont County Communications Director Kathy Lehr at (513) 732-7597 or by e-mail, klehr@ clermontcountyohio.gov.