The Use of a Brief Solution Focused Written Intervention and its Effect on Current Smokers' Willingness to Consider Making a Quit Attempt
Open Access
- Author:
- Yingst, Jessica Michelle
- Graduate Program:
- Public Health Sciences
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- April 03, 2014
- Committee Members:
- Jonathan A Foulds, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
- Keywords:
- smoking cessation
solution focused therapy
quit attempts - Abstract:
- Introduction: Many current smokers are interested in quitting smoking, but only a small proportion of those interested smokers actually make a quit attempt. Health care providers typically offer only brief advice to smokers, partly because they feel ill-equipped (lack of time and training) to provide counseling. However, studies have shown that brief advice is a less effective technique to help smokers initiate a quit attempt than motivational techniques. This study proposes testing a new brief solution focused written intervention that could easily be used by health care providers to increase patient willingness to make a quit attempt. Methods: Participants were 63 current everyday smokers recruited from the Penn State Hershey Medical Center Surgical Waiting Room. Measures: Participants completed a survey regarding basic demographic information, tobacco use history, importance and confidence to quit smoking, and stage of change. Intervention: Participants were randomly assigned to the treatment or control group. Both groups received a similar brief solution focused written intervention but the treatment group’s intervention discussed becoming a non-smoker while the control group’s intervention discussed a topic not related to smoking. Results/Findings: Overall, there were no significant differences in willingness to consider quitting smoking between the treatment and control groups. However, in a sub-sample of participants in the contemplation or preparation stage of change, treatment group participants were more likely to accept an informational brochure providing help to quit smoking (p= .0491). Conclusion: This pilot study has provided preliminary evidence that a brief structured intervention asking current smokers to imagine themselves as non-smokers can be used to create willingness to accept help to quit smoking. This intervention has been tested as a written patient-completed form but should be tested as a clinician-administered conversation, with a larger population, to determine if it would be effective in clinical practice.