Immediate and short-term impact of a brief motivational smoking intervention using a biomedical risk assessment: the Get PHIT trial.
BACKGROUND
Providing smokers with biologically based evidence of smoking-related disease risk or physical impairment may be an effective way to motivate cessation.


METHODS
Smokers were recruited for a free health risk assessment and randomized to receive personally tailored feedback based on their lung functioning, carbon monoxide (CO) exposure, and smoking-related health conditions or generic information about the risks of smoking and personalized counseling based on their diet, body mass index, and physical activity. All (n = 536) were advised to quit smoking and offered access to a free telephone cessation program. Participants were surveyed immediately after intervention and 1 month later to assess the impact on various indices of motivation to quit.


RESULTS
Immediately posttreatment, experimental participants rated themselves as more likely to try to quit (p = .02) and reported a greater mean increase in their motivation to quit than controls (p = .04). At 1-month follow-up, however, we found no significant group differences on any motivational indices. In post-hoc analyses comparing smokers in the experimental group with and without lung impairment, persons with impaired lung functioning had a greater change from baseline in posttreatment motivation to quit (adjusted p = .05) and perceived risk of developing a smoking-related disease (p = .03) compared with persons with no lung impairment, but we found no significant treatment effect on any motivational indices at 1 month.


CONCLUSIONS
The results suggest that the intervention had a small, temporary effect, but we found no clear evidence that the intervention increased motivation to quit smoking during the first month postintervention.
McClure
Jennifer B
JB
Group Health Center for Health Studies, 1730 Minor Avenue, Suite 1600, Seattle, WA 98101, USA. mcclure.j@ghc.org
Ludman
Evette
E
Grothaus
Lou
L
Pabiniak
Chester
C
Richards
Julie
J
Mohelnitzky
Amy
A
D002248:Carbon Monoxide; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012129:Respiratory Function Tests; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000379:methods* / Q000523:psychology
D002248:Carbon Monoxide