When a smoke isn't just a smoke

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Claire Sterk, PhD:
When a smoke isn’t just a smoke

"Helping people with addiction"
View video in larger size on YouTube.

Whether the feds’ new plans for graphic warnings on cigarette packaging will someday cut the number of U.S. smokers remains to be seen. In the meantime, Claire Sterk, PhD, Candler Professor of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education at Rollins School of Public Health and senior vice provost at Emory, has plans of her own.  

She and her colleagues are busy talking—and listening—to smokers to find out why one out of five people keep lighting up despite smoking’s risks, obstacles and stigma. The researchers’ aim: devising interventions that help people quit.  

Sterk and her colleagues are conducting motivational interviews to gather information about smokers’ demographics, smoking history, their first cigarette and how their smoking patterns have changed over time. The researchers also want to know what kinds of efforts smokers have made to quit—if any.   To hear Sterk’s own words about what she and her colleagues have uncovered, use the player at the top of this page or subscribe to the podcast.