QuitNow Men

QuitNowmen.ca is the first website in the world designed with men for men to support their efforts to reduce and quit smoking. Men approach quitting in different ways than women, and need resources that speak directly to them. The unique, evidence-based resources available on QuitNow Men are ones that men can relate to and find useful in their quit attempts. The website activities are interactive, informative and fun, with a focus on action. Visit men.quitnow.ca.

Why a Men’s Website?

There are a couple of reasons we decided to build a site for men. The first is that, unfortunately, men in B.C. are smoking in greater numbers than women. In 1999, about 20% of men and 18% of women (age 25+) smoked. By 2011, the smoking rate for women had fallen dramatically to 11%, yet the smoking rate for men remained at around 18%. As a result, there are 100,000 more men smoking in B.C right now than women. The second reason is that the majority of people currently using the BC Lung Association’s flagship smoking cessation website – QuitNow.ca – are women. While men are still accessing services at QuitNow.ca, they just don’t seem to be using them as much as women. And it’s not that men don’t want to quit, because we know that men make more quit attempts than women. It’s rather that men approach quitting in different ways than women do, and we wanted to create resources that resonated more with men and that they would find useful in their quit attempts.

Project Team

UBC Research Team: John Oliffe, Joan Bottorff, Gayl Sarbit, Leanne Currie, Cristina Caperchione, Martha Mackay, Blye Frank, Paul Sharp, Andrew Munroe

BC Lung Association Team: Jack Boomer, Sharon Hammond, Jon Schmid, Katrina van Bylandt, Michael Vasilev

Publications

Bottorff, J. L., Oliffe, J. L., Sarbit, G., Sharp, P., & Kelly, M. T. (2018). Smoke-free men: Competing and connecting to quit. American Journal of Health Promotion, 32(1), 135–142 doi: 10.1177/0890117116671257

Bottorff JL, Oliffe JL, Sarbit G, Sharp P, Caperchione, CM, Currie, LM, Schmid, J., Mackay, MH, & Stolp, S. (2016). Evaluation of QuitNow Men: An online, men-centered smoking cessation intervention. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 18(4):e83. doi: 10.2196/jmir.5076

Bottorff JL, Sarbit G, Oliffe JL, Kelly MT, Lohan M, Stolp S, & Sharp P. (2015). “If I Were Nick”: Men’s responses to an interactive video drama series to support smoking cessation. Journal of Medical Internet Research,17(8):e190 doi: 10.2196/jmir.4491

Bottorff, J.L., Oliffe, J.L., Sarbit, G., Sharp, P. & Kelly, M.T. (in review, 2015). Smoke free men: Competing and connecting to quit. American Journal of Health Promotion