NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Computer software has become an essential part of great endeavors, from Internet start-ups to guiding space probes. A new report suggests that the computer can also play a role in a more personal feat for many people--to quit smoking.

A report from the University of Pittsburgh suggests that a self-help, computer-based smoking cessation program that includes use of nicotine gum and is tailored to the individual may improve smokers` quit rates.

Researchers found that smokers using the program, the SmithKline Beecham`s Committed Quitters Program (CQP), had an over 50% higher rate of quitting smoking compared with those just using the gum and an audiotape (the UG group), according to study results published in the June 12th issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

The study was funded by SmithKline Beecham Consumer Healthcare, which manufactures Nicorette nicotine gum and the NicoDerm CQ nicotine patch.

``The Committed Quitters Program is a set of computer-tailored printed materials designed to help people successfully quit smoking with Nicorette gum,`` lead author Dr. Saul Shiffman, from the university`s Smoking Research Group, explained to Reuters Health. ``Avoiding the one-size-fits-all approach of most materials--which doesn`t work well--the CQ program creates for each smoker materials that address that smoker`s particular concerns about quitting smoking,`` he added.

Shiffman and his colleagues compared the efficacy of the customized CQP to standard self-help materials--a user`s guide and audiotape provided in the gum packaging--in a trial of more than 3,600 smokers. The authors also evaluated the effectiveness of an encouraging telephone call to those in the CPQ group. All three methods were used as supplements to nicotine replacement therapy.

The individuals using CQP reported ``significantly higher abstinence rates`` than those using the standard user`s guide ``at both the 6-and 12-week follow-up,`` the results indicate.

``At 6 weeks the CPQ group quit rates were 45% higher than those of the UG group (36% versus 25%) and at 12 weeks, the CQP group reported 71% higher abstinence rates (28% versus 18%),`` Shiffman and colleagues write. The authors note that no effect on quit rates was observed among those who received the additional telephone call.

``The fact that the program could achieve substantial improvement--increasing quit rates roughly by 50% over this baseline of effective treatment--was a pleasant surprise,`` said Shiffman. ``Also surprising was how broad the effect was-- it worked for men and women, for heavy and light smokers, for those who were confident in quitting and those who were not,`` he emphasized.

The authors mention several study limitations, including the fact that they did not verify claims of abstinence and that several individuals ``were lost to follow-up`` because they could not be contacted by telephone. However these limitations are countered with the study`s strengths--that the CQ program evaluated is widely available; ``therefore, (the study) results have immediate applicability in practice,`` they report.

``The results show that we can deliver effective behavioral treatment on a mass scale, while retaining the individualization and `personal touch` of direct treatment,`` Shiffman concluded. ``It demonstrates that we can help people get a combination of effective medication and behavioral treatment in the convenience and comfort of their own home, without needing to go to a clinic or office visit.``

(From Bell South)