Background and aims: Rehabilitation centres for mothers are a suitable setting to offer smoking cessation treatment to these women. Telephone aftercare could enhance the effectiveness of an inpatient smoking cessation program. We investigated whether non-directive, supportive aftercare or a structured, smoking specific counselling give more benefit.
Patients and method: 527 smoking mothers participated in a smoking cessation program during their stay in a prevention/rehabilitation centre. Afterwards they were randomly assigned to one of three aftercare conditions: no aftercare (control group), structured telephone aftercare or non-directive telephone aftercare. At the end of the inpatient program and 6 months later the smoking status of the participants was assessed.
Results: The structured telephone aftercare resulted in the highest abstinence rates after 6 months (31.5%; odds ratio 2.0; confidence interval: 1.1 - 3.8). The non-directive telephone counselling had no significant effect on abstinence rates.
Conclusions: A structured telephone aftercare proves to be an effective intervention for women, which stabilizes the abstinence rate following a clinic based smoking cessation program.
Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart-New York.