Newswise — NEW YORK, December 18, 2018 – New Year’s has become a time when many smokers make a resolution to quit for good, but what happens after that? Quitting smoking is tough, and even with the strongest resolve, many smokers need a few quit attempts in order to stay quit. Studies from the FDA’s Every Try Counts campaign and the United Kingdom Royal Society for  Public Health show that only a fraction of quit attempts are successful, meaning quitting smoking as a New Year’s resolution may be difficult to keep. 

To support quitters everywhere, Quit & Stay Quit Monday, an initiative of The Monday Campaigns and the Institute for Global Tobacco Control at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, developed the Monday Quit Kit. The toolkit provides evidence-based resources for individuals and tobacco cessation professionals that can help quitters stay on track over the long haul.  After quitting on New Year’s, quitters can use every Monday as a weekly cue to recommit to their quit, celebrate progress, and quit again if they relapse.

Dr. Joanna Cohen, PhD, Director of Johns Hopkins’ Institute for Global Tobacco Control, says, “Studies show that Mondays are a natural opportunity to engage smokers and reduce their likelihood of relapse. It’s the January of the week, the day that smokers are looking for help.”

Quit & Stay Quit Monday is supported by research conducted by Johns Hopkins that shows that people are predisposed to taking healthy actions at the beginning of the week, including seeking out help for quitting smoking. A study co-authored by Dr. Cohen and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine (JAMA) found that more people conduct Google searches about quitting smoking on Monday than any other day of the week, amounting to 8 million more searches across six different languages.

How Quit & Stay Quit Monday Can Help

Quit & Stay Quit Monday supports individual quitters and tobacco cessation professionals in leveraging the Monday Approach. The campaign offers weekly tips and tools for quitters and a free program enhancement guide for organizations with step-by-step instructions on incorporating the Monday Approach into their cessation program.  The Monday Campaigns and Johns Hopkins also offer technical assistance to organizations wanting to implement and evaluate the program.

“Monday is a great strategy to sustain annual events like New Year’s,” says Peggy Neu, President of the Monday Campaigns. “It’s the fresh start to each week, giving people 52 chances a year to stay on track with their health goals.  And if you slip up, which most people do, there’s always another Monday right around the corner.”

For more information on Quit & Stay Quit Monday, visit www.iquitmonday.org. Organizations and individuals can also sign-up for Quit & Stay Quit Monday’s newsletter to receive free weekly tips to quit smoking or follow the initiative on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest to stay connected.

About Quit & Stay Quit Monday

Quit & Stay Quit Monday is an initiative of The Monday Campaigns, a public health initiative associated with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, and the Maxwell School of Syracuse University. For more information on the Monday Campaigns, including research supporting the use of Monday as a behavior change strategy, visit www.mondaycampaigns.org