Efficacy and cost-effectiveness of a minimal intervention to prevent smoking relapse: dismantling the effects of amount of content versus contact.
Relapse prevention remains a major challenge to smoking cessation efforts. T. H. Brandon, B. N. Collins, L. M. Juliano, and A. B. Lazev (2000) found that a series of 8 empirically based relapse-prevention booklets mailed to ex-smokers over 1 year significantly reduced relapse. This study dismantled 2 components of that intervention: the amount of content (number of booklets) and the frequency of contact. Content and contact were crossed in a 2 X 2 factorial design. The criteria of at least 1 week of abstinence at baseline was met by 431 participants, 75%-85% of whom returned 12-, 18-, and 24-month follow-up questionnaires. Eight booklets produced consistently higher point-prevalence abstinence rates than did a single booklet, but frequency of contact did not affect outcome. Moreover, the high-content interventions were highly cost-effective.
Department of Psychology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33617, USA. brandont@moffitt.usf.edu.
Thomas H
TH
Brandon
Cathy D
CD
Meade
Thaddeus A
TA
Herzog
Thomas N
TN
Chirikos
Monica S
MS
Webb
Alan B
AB
Cantor
D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055502:Secondary Prevention; D012907:Smoking / Q000191:economics* / Q000453:epidemiology; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods*; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires