QuitNet, a free online program with more than 100,000 registered users, helps smokers kick the habit. It offers a Web-based support network, information on behavior modification techniques, free expert counseling, user profiling and personalized information, and referrals to local cessation programs.
A recent survey showed that 43% of QuitNet users (40% male and 60% female) described the site as "very helpful," with 57% stating they were taking steps toward quitting or had quit and were trying to continue their abstinence.
QuitNet averages 10,000 daily visits, and more than 200 new registrants. Nearly 2,000 messages are posted in the forums each day. Nurses can direct patients who want free smoking cessation assistance to http://www.quitnet.com, which includes the following features:
* Questionnaires that help smokers understand tobacco addiction.
* Open forums and chat rooms for mutual support, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. FIGURE
* Regularly scheduled open chat sessions and one-on-one sessions with professional cessation counselors.
* "Instant messaging," which makes real-time online communication possible with others who are in similar stages of cessation.
* Information on cessation aids and approaches, including FDA-approved nicotine replacement therapies, "quit tips" and support messages sent to the user's e-mail, a reference library devoted to tobacco and cessation, software that helps the user set a quit date and customize his quitting calendar, and the "Q-gadget," which calculates the number of days "smoke-free" and both the money and life saved.
* A directory of local cessation programs (based on the smoker's Zip code).
Funding for QuitNet is provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program (MTCP) (which receives support from the National Cancer Institute). QuitLine, which provides counseling in the QuitNet Web forums, was initiated by the Massachusetts Department of Health and is currently run by the American Cancer Society and the MTCP. Daily tobacco news summaries are provided by the Advocacy Institute, and professional Web designers and cessation counselors make up the staff. QuitNet operates in association with Boston University's School of Public Health.-Thom Schwarz, RN, LNC, editorial director