A Study of Novel Smoking Cessation Interventions in Current and Former Injection Drug Users

Cigarette smoking is very common in current and former injection drug users and is known to
cause chronic lung diseases. Quitting smoking is proven to improve the health of people
addicted to cigarettes. . Little information exists regarding the perceptions and
characteristics of drug users regarding quitting smoking. Additionally, most programs
designed to help people quit smoking are not very successful. One reason these programs may
not work well is because it is difficult to motivate people to quit smoking. New methods of
motivating changes in behavior include small monetary payments for healthy behavior and
reporting breathing tests with the concept of "lung age," which is the age of an average
healthy person with similar breathing test results. For example, a health care provider can
report results as "Although you are 50 years old, you have the lungs for a 70 year old".
In this proposal, the investigators plan to first explore the beliefs and characteristics of
current and former injection drug users and how they are related to quitting smoking. The
investigators then plan to study whether the use of two new methods of motivation increases
the chances that this group will stop smoking.