Sydney:
Sixty five -year-old Hank Davis is watching a video that shows what would happen if he had a heart attack. Davis had been trying to give up smoking for the past 40 years, but was unsuccessful.
The video changed that.
"It rather indicates what's going to happen if you just carry on. And you don't really want to lose your family do you, and move on," Davis said.
It is a well-known fact that smoking doubles the risk of a heart attack.
So, cardiologists at Sydney's North Shore Heart Research Foundation decided to try to scare patients into kicking the habit by showing a smoker what their own heart attack would look like.
"As a cardiologist, I've been struck for several years about how people who have had a heart attack or needed heart surgery have been able to stop smoking, whereas previously they had been unable to do so. So our aim was to see if we could help relatively healthy people, relatively healthy smokers, without heart disease, to motivate them to stop smoking by using a personalised video to demonstrate to them the significance and potential significance of a heart attack," said Professor Geoffrey Tofler.
Patients are able to watch themselves and their family on screen, and witness what would happen if they had a heart attack.
A study found that more than half of the smokers quit a week after watching the video and stayed off cigarettes for 12 months.
"It may be that there's a personalising element, so when somebody watches a video on TV, they can avert their eyes and say 'well this is not me'. But in this case, it obviously is them," said Robin May, a psychologist.
The video changed that.
"It rather indicates what's going to happen if you just carry on. And you don't really want to lose your family do you, and move on," Davis said.
It is a well-known fact that smoking doubles the risk of a heart attack.
So, cardiologists at Sydney's North Shore Heart Research Foundation decided to try to scare patients into kicking the habit by showing a smoker what their own heart attack would look like.
"As a cardiologist, I've been struck for several years about how people who have had a heart attack or needed heart surgery have been able to stop smoking, whereas previously they had been unable to do so. So our aim was to see if we could help relatively healthy people, relatively healthy smokers, without heart disease, to motivate them to stop smoking by using a personalised video to demonstrate to them the significance and potential significance of a heart attack," said Professor Geoffrey Tofler.
Patients are able to watch themselves and their family on screen, and witness what would happen if they had a heart attack.
A study found that more than half of the smokers quit a week after watching the video and stayed off cigarettes for 12 months.
"It may be that there's a personalising element, so when somebody watches a video on TV, they can avert their eyes and say 'well this is not me'. But in this case, it obviously is them," said Robin May, a psychologist.
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