Many smokers have made many attempts to quit but failed and gradually lost confidence. According to Bureau of Health Promotion in Taiwan, studies revealed that if smokers relied on willpower to quit, their success rate is lower than 5%, but with help from healthcare professionals, the success rate can more than double. The 25% success rate of counseling service provided by free quit-line, organized by the Bureau of Health Promotion, is the best proof.
A 40-year-old smoker named Sun has been addicted to the habit for 25 years. He took his family doctor’s advice to quit smoking with the quit-line’s help two years ago. “It’s amazing that every time I had craving and felt like giving up because of anxiety and pain, I would get a caring message from the quit-line,” he said.
In addition to the help from quit-line, Sun explained that family support has been a key factor for him to successfully quit smoking. His wife has increased the amounts of vegetables and fruits in the meals to improve cessation-related problems, like constipation or weight gain.
The statistics have shown that since the start of free quit-line in 2003, more than 600,000 calls have been made and the success rate has reached 25% at the end of six months upon repeated counseling, higher than the 22% success rate of cessation clinics.
It’s worth mentioning that even during the long Chinese New Year holidays this year, the quit-line received more than 100 calls on average per day from smokers anxious to quit as part of the New Year’s resolution.