Research Update: Quitting Smoking Even If You Are Unmotivated to Quit Smoking

Dijkstra, A., De Vries, H., Roijackers, J., & van Breukelen, G. (1998). Tailoring information to enhance quitting in smokers with low motivation to quit: Three basic efficacy questions. Health Psychology, 17, 513-519.

III. Overview:

This study was aimed at increasing motivation to quit smoking in smokers who were not contemplating quitting in the near future. The authors proposed that perhaps by tailoring the content of specific intervention materials to particular individuals that motivation levels to quit smoking might be increased. More specifically, this study sought to answer three questions: (1) are tailored interventions more successful than nontailored interventions?, (2) are tailored interventions that are accompanied by a self-help guide more successful than interventions without the self-help guide?, and (3) are multiple tailored interventions more successful than a solitary tailored intervention?

IV. General Method:

The researchers randomly assigned several hundred smokers with low motivation to quit smoking to 1 of 5 procedures: (1) multiple tailored letters with a self-help guide, (2) multiple tailored letters without a self-help guide, (3) one tailored letter with a self-help guide, (4) one tailored letter without a self-help guide, and (5) a nontailored quit smoking intervention. The primary dependent variable were measures related to quitting smoking or the intention to quit smoking.

V. Conclusions and Implications:

The results were promising in that they suggested that some interventions may be useful in helping increase motivation levels to quit smoking in individual who otherwise had no intention of quitting. The most effective intervention involved multiple tailored letters. The inclusion of the self-help guide was only effective among highly-dependent smokers. The single tailored letter with the self-help guide was no more effective than the nontailored intervention.