The impact of a brief intervention on maternal smoking behavior.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To determine if mothers receiving a smoking cessation intervention emphasizing health risks of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) for their children have a higher quit rate than 1) mothers receiving routine smoking cessation advice or 2) a control group. DESIGN: Randomized, controlled trial. SETTING: Primary care center in a large urban children's hospital. INTERVENTION Four hundred seventy-nine mothers were randomly assigned to a smoking cessation intervention either aimed at their child's health or their own health, or to a control group receiving safety information. OUTCOME MEASURES: Smoking status, stage of change, cigarettes/day, location smoking occurred, and knowledge of ETS effects. RESULTS: Complete data (baseline and both follow-ups) were available for 166 subjects. There was no impact of group assignment on the quit rate, cigarettes/day, or stage of change. The Child Health Group intervention had a sustained effect on location where smoking reportedly occurred (usually outside) and on improved knowledge of ETS effects. CONCLUSIONS: Further research is needed to devise more effective methods of using the pediatric health care setting to influence adult smoking behaviors.