'Future-oriented smokers more likely to kick the butt'

Smokers who value their future and plan their lives are more likely to kick the butt than others, a new study has found.

The study found that future-focused people are more likely to make healthy changes to their diet and exercise habits than others who discount the future.

The discovery came after Dr Heather Brown and Jean Adams of Newcastle University (UK) tapped into eight years of data from a large Australian database.

The Household Income and Labour Dynamics of Australia (HILDA) survey collects data on economic and subjective well-being, work, and family dynamics every year from over 7,000 Australian households.

Brown and Adams identified 1,817 participants who were smokers at the start of the survey (2001) and analysed their planning regarding their saving and spending to measure their future orientation.

People whose spending and saving plans looked ahead by more than three months were categorised as having a longer time horizon, while those whose financial plans looked no more than a week ahead had a shorter time horizon.

The researchers then looked at how many of those 2001 smokers had quit or tried to quit by 2008.

Seventy-six per cent of quitters were long-time-horizon planners, compared with 66 per cent of those who continued to smoke.

Researchers in other fields have found similar associations: newly diagnosed diabetics who are future-focused are more likely to make healthy changes to their diet and exercise habits, and cocaine users who discount the future are less likely to stop using the drug.

"It is possible that helping smokers to think about the future a bit more might be a useful way to help them quit" said Adams in a statement.

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