Self-Help Quit Smoking Interventions
Article Highlights
- Study Title
- Self-help quit smoking interventions: effects of self-help materials, social support instructions, and telephone counseling
- Study Authors
- C. Tracy Orleans, Victor Schoenbach, and Edward Wagner, et al.
- Publication Date
- 1991
- Complete Study
- View Complete Abstract
Since the 1970s, public health experts have developed self-help guides to help smokers quit on their own. The guides typically convert effective clinical programs into self-administered programs. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of self-help guides and telephone counseling services to help people quit smoking.
Design
The researchers tested a standard 13-page self-quitting guide (the control) against the 28-page Free & Clear self-quitting guide, the F&C guide + social support instructions for family and friends of the smoker, and the F&C guide + social support instructions + 4 telephone calls with specialists. Over 2000 adult smokers from Washington State identified as "wanting to quit" were recruited to take part in the free "Self-Help Quit Program." Once enrolled in the program, smokers were randomized to one of four groups, as shown in Figure 1.0
For data collection and assessment, the researchers mailed questionnaires to study participants approximately 8 and 16 months after enrollment [to the study] and asked if they had quit smoking for at least 1 week and at least 1 month and had not used other tobacco products in the preceding month.
Figure 1.0
Findings
The researchers received 1,877 questionnaires for data analysis. From the responses, they found that at 8 months, 84% of subjects read "most" or "all" of the Free & Clear 28-page guide. Then, at the 12 month assessment, researchers found subjects in the control group followed the 13-page guide less closely than subjects in the groups using the 28-page Free & Clear guide.
Overall, 80% of subjects tried to quit at least one time after enrolling, with a significantly higher proportion of attempts made among smokers in the extensive treatment condition (F&C 28-page guide + social support instructions + 4 telephone calls with specialists). The smokers in the extensive treatment group also had the highest average level of confidence in ability to quit smoking.
At 16 months, subjects in all four groups decreased smoking rate, and subjects in all groups but the control group significantly reduced nicotine level per cigarette. In fact, subjects in the extensive treatment group (F&C 28-page guide + social support instructions + 4 telephone calls with specialists) reported a greater average reduction in nicotine per cigarette than subjects in the other groups.
Finally, subjects using the F&C guide 4 telephone counseling sessions with specialists achieved a quit rate of 23% at 16 months; brief calls with specialists boosted the quit rates by a relative 50% compared to the three other study groups. The advantage of calls with specialists plus self-help materials appeared at 8 months - after just two calls - and was still present at 16 months after all 4 calls were delivered.
Conclusion
Free & Clear's telephonic counseling program plus self-help materials was found to be an effective strategy for assisting self-quitters. Use of self-help guides and social support instructions for family and friends did not significantly improve a person's likelihood of quitting in comparison to use of the F&C 4-call program.