EFFECTS OF GRADUAL CESSATION AMONG SMOKERS WHO ARE LESS READY TO QUIT

University Of California San Diego, La Jolla CA

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Abstract

Cigarette smoking represents the largest preventible cause of premature mortality and morbidity among Americans. Regardless of the type of smoking cessation assistance offered, fully one-third of the clients who come to a preliminary session drop out before treatment actually begins, and nearly the same number abandon the clinic before it ends. Smokers who complete treatment do, however, achieve considerable higher rates of a cessation than those smokers who quit on their own. The California Smokers' Helpline has developed an effective protocol for telephone cessation counseling. The provision of free counselling that can be contacted through a 1- 800 number at a convenient time and place (e.g., at home, after work) that provides counselling in Spanish and Chinese as well as English has removed significant barriers to the utilization of effective assistance, especially among traditionally underserved groups (e.g., African-Americans and Hispanics, the less educated, the less affluent). Still a significant number of callers to the California Smoker's Helpline are not ready to quit or are not willing to utilize counselling. The purpose of this study is to see if the incorporation of nicotine/cigarette fading procedures into the Helpline relapse prevention counselling protocol can increase utilization. In the first phrase of this project we will seek to determine the characteristics of callers who do and do not use telephone counselling. To date few studies have examined differences between participants and nonparticipant in clinic, worksite, and self-help cessation programs. This first phase will also determine preferences of various subgroups of smokers for different methods of gradual cessation. In the second phase of this project we plan to conduct a full randomized control trial to determine if the inclusion of procedures for gradual cessation increase the utilization and effectiveness of the telephone counselling.