The Effect of Adding Telephone Contact to Self-Instructional Smoking-Cessation Materials

Abstract

Self-instructional materials are widely used to help smokers develop cognitive-behavioural techniques which may assist them to stop smoking. The effectiveness of these materials may be augmented by a minimal therapist support component to encourage and supervise their use. Forty-five smokers were recruited to a smoking-cessation program at a community health centre, and were randomly assigned to either a self-instructional manual plus regular telephone contact condition, or to a manual-only condition. A higher proportion of participants in the telephone contact condition reported being abstinent at 3- and 6-month follow-ups, but not at a 12-month follow-up. There were no differences between the two conditions for the smoking rates of the remaining smokers at each of the follow-ups. Levels of adherence to the techniques presented in the manual were generally low, with a preference for the more-simple behavioural techniques, and those which were related to initial behaviour change rather than to maintenance. There was no relationship between levels of reported adherence to the techniques and smoking status at follow up. There is the need for further research on the cost-effective use of social support strategies to augment the impact of self-instructional behaviour-change materials.