Most adults who smoke cigarettes want to quit, and many report trying to quit in the previous year. However, less than 1 in 10 succeed, at least in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Are there improved techniques to encourage and aid those who want to quit to actually break the habit? The answer is yes according to Jeff Stein, a health behaviours researcher at Virginia Tech’s Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC. Stein has been awarded a new grant from the U.S. National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health. This is to test a low-cost behavioural intervention that may help people — particularly those in rural areas — quit smoking.
Smoking remains a leading preventable cause of death and disease in the U.S., as it does in other high income countries.
“Nearly all adults who smoke cigarettes know smoking causes cancer, and most indicate they want to quit,” says Stein. “But knowing that smoking affects your health isn’t enough to motivate people.”
The project’s goal is to help people quit smoking by testing different versions of an intervention known as episodic future thinking, which aims to reduce impulsivity and promote healthier choices by guiding people to think about their personal future often and in concrete detail.
Episodic future thinking refers to the cognitive ability to mentally simulate detailed, personal events that might happen in your future, essentially “pre-experiencing” them to prepare and make decisions, drawing heavily from past episodic memories but projecting forward with specific details, emotions, and potential outcomes, influencing planning, impulse control, and problem-solving.
This approach is distinct from general future thinking or worry, involving the brain networks used for remembering the past but applied to imagining tomorrow, helping with things like remembering to take medicine or making healthier choices.
The study will test variations of a method called episodic future thinking, which trains participants to vividly imagine positive personal events in their future, helping reduce impulsivity and encourage healthier choices. By focusing attention on long-term rewards rather than the immediate relief that nicotine provides, episodic future thinking may promote lasting behaviour change.
The participants will be recruited from both rural and urban areas for a remote study. Each will receive information on smoking cessation and nicotine replacement therapy. The study’s findings could help tailor future public health interventions that target tobacco use and other substance-related behaviours.
This research builds on previous Fralin Biomedical Research Institute studies showing that episodic future thinking can positively influence a range of addictive behaviours.
