Quitting smoking at any age can improve a person’s health. And believe it or not, older staff members often fair better with smoking cessation than younger employees.
According to the Journal of American Medicine, Duke Univ. reseearchers tracked 573 older patients over 10 years. They found that just 16% of those who joined the tobacco use cessation program later returned to tobacco use.
Previous research has found young smokers who try to quit have a 35% to 45% relapse rate within two years.
Given that staff nationwide are retiring later and the cost of retiree health care is sky high, you might want to keep trying with use of tobacco cessation programs, even for the oldest staff on your health plan.
