Quitters do win
October 20, 2008 by Bill MeltzerPosted in: Employee education, Healthcare costs, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, Wellness
Quitting smoking at any age can improve a person’s health. And believe it or not, older employees often fair better with smoking cessation than younger workers.
According to the Journal of American Medicine, Duke University reseearchers tracked 573 older patients over 10 years. They found that just 16% of those who joined the smoking cessation program later returned to smoking. Previous research has found young smokers who try to quit have a 35% to 45% relapse rate within two years.
Given that employees nationwide are retiring later and the cost of retiree health care is sky high, you may want to keep trying with smoking cessation programs, even for the oldest employees on your health plan.
October 23rd, 2008 at 3:41 pm
I have always been so angered at employers who pick on smoker’s and blame them for high health care. It is just not true. Because as your article points out it is a retireee health issue and therefore a Medicare issue. The issues that employer’s have to deal with in terms of providing health care costs are not related to smoking but instead are high risk pregnancies, diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. And these things are protected. Yes smoking is a terrible habit but employers are not seeing smoking related health issues. They are seeing human issues, obesity issues, nutrition issues, and genetic issues. Period.