title: The Pap smear screening as an occasion for smoking cessation and physical activity counselling: baseline characteristics of women involved in the SPRINT randomized controlled trial.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Gender-specific smoking cessation strategies have rarely been developed. Evidence of effectiveness of physical activity (PA) promotion and intervention in adjunct to smoking cessation programs is not strong. SPRINT study is a randomized controlled trial (RCT) designed to evaluate a counselling intervention on smoking cessation and PA delivered to women attending the Italian National Health System Cervical Cancer Screening Program. This paper presents study design and baseline characteristics of the study population.
  
  
  METHODS
  Among women undergoing the Pap examination in three study centres (Florence, Turin, Mantua), participants were randomized to the smoking cessation counselling [S], the smoking cessation + PA counselling [S + PA], or the control [C] groups. The program under evaluation is a standard brief counselling on smoking cessation combined with a brief counselling on increasing PA, and was delivered in 2010. A questionnaire, administered before, after 6 months and 1 year from the intervention, was used to track behavioural changes in tobacco use and PA, and to record cessation rates in participants.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Out of the 5,657 women undergoing the Pap examination, 1,100 participants (55% of smokers) were randomized in 1 of the 3 study groups (363 in the S, 366 in the S + PA and 371 in the C groups). The three arms did not differ on any demographic, PA, or tobacco-use characteristics. Recruited smokers were older, less educated than non-participant women, more motivated to quit (33% vs.9% in the Preparation stage, p < 0.001), smoked more cigarettes per day (12 vs.9, p < 0.001), and were more likely to have already done 1 or more quit attempts (64% vs.50%, p < 0.001). The approach of SPRINT study appeared suitable to enrol less educated women who usually smoke more and have more difficulties to quit.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  ISRCTN: ISRCTN52660565.
authors.affiliation: Cancer Prevention and Research Institute, Florence, Italy. e.chellini@ispo.toscana.it
authors.forename: Elisabetta
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Chellini
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gorini
authors.forename: Giulia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Carreras
authors.forename: Livia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Giordano
authors.forename: Emanuela
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Anghinoni
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Iossa
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bellati
authors.forename: Elisa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Grechi
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Coppo
authors.forename: Fiorella
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Talassi
authors.forename: Maria Rosa
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Giovacchini
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003376:Counseling; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening; D009043:Motor Activity; D009313:National Health Programs; D065006:Papanicolaou Test; D030361:Papillomavirus Infections / Q000175:diagnosis*; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D015397:Program Evaluation; D016540:Smoking Cessation; D012923:Social Class; D014626:Vaginal Smears; D016387:Women's Health