Today is the first day of the WouldURather… Contest!

            To all participants of the WouldURather…(WUR) Contest, thank you for joining and we hope you are excited for your first day!  You may be asking yourself, how can being in this contest help me quit smoking? Is using a contest to quit smoking any better than the other options?  I’d like to shed some light on these questions in my blog today, and I hope to excite and motivate you on your first day in the contest!

            Research shows that young adults are most interested in receiving self-direct, convenient, and cheap interventions to help them quit smoking – all of which are components of the WUR contest.  Also – not surprisingly – young adults are much more likely to quit smoking if given the opportunity to win a prize.  I’m sure we can all relate to that!  Students who sign up for the WUR contest are also more likely to quit because of the social network it provides.  You can link up with friends or roommates and quit together, and research has shown that quitting smoking is easier if your friends are quitting too!  

            So how effective exactly is a contest in helping you quit smoking?  Research from previous contests show that quit rates usually range between 10-50%, whereas unassisted quit rates (aka going at it alone) are much lower – only 5-7%. 

But what about the WUR contest specifically, how effective has it shown to be?  Our research has shown it is VERY EFFECTIVE!  Six months after the contest ended, 24% of those in Quit for Good and 27% of those in Keep the Count were still smoke-free!  That is an astounding number, versus the 5-7% quit rate mentioned earlier for those who quit smoking without assistance.

I hope I’ve helped to excite you all about the contest you are in!  Feel free to comment on this blog or on our Facebook page and let us know how the contest is going for you so far!