Cigarette smoking remains common, particularly in rural areas, despite ample evidence that smoking causes cancer and respiratory disease. Successful smoking cessation yields the majority of its health benefits (e.g., avoidance of lung cancer) after years of sustained behavioral change; however, people who smoke cigarettes tend to show elevated rates of delay discounting (i.e., devaluation of delayed outcomes) and a bias for immediate gratification. The overall goal of this project is to develop different versions of an episodic future thinking intervention (i.e., visualization of the future) and test their feasibility and efficacy for smoking cessation in rural and urban populations.
smoked cigarettes daily for the last 30 days;
salivary cotinine > 30 ng/mL, consistent with tobacco use;
plan to quit smoking in the next 30 days
prior diagnosis with a smoking-related illness (e.g., respiratory disease);
past 30-day use any smoking cessation treatment;
anxiety or mood disorders; and
medical contraindications for use of nicotine replacement therapy (e.g. pregnancy).
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Lead sponsor
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Collaborator
Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center
Collaborator