Use of self-help materials and smoking cessation among proactively recruited and volunteer intervention participants

Abstract

Self-help smoking cessation booklets were sent to 305 smokers who had sent in a coupon indicating interest in participating in smoking cessation programs and to 330 smokers who had not volunteered but who had consented to receive some educational materials after they were contacted. Nonvolunteers were significantly younger, were more likely to be male, were lighter smokers, were less addicted to smoking, had made fewer quit attempts in the past 12 months, were less likely to have made a serious quit attempt ever, and were less interested in the program. They were also less likely to read the booklets, to complete the exercises, or to attempt to quit after receiving the materials. Among nonvolunteers, stronger desire to quit was associated with reading the booklets and with completing the exercises. Twelve-month quit rates were 15% among volunteers and 7% among nonvolunteers.