Congress Abstracts 2005

14

INDIGENOUS HELPERS FOR SMOKING CESSATION. Susan Andersen, APRN, BC, PhD, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, TX.

Smoking cessation is an area where nurses are uniquely equipped to provide information to patients in all settings. Nurses are educated to think holistically, and take into account the individual patient in her/his unique setting composed of family, occupation, community and internal and external environment. The latest Surgeon General’s report advises all health care providers be involved at every visit to promote smoking cessation. As smoking is related to the top four causes of mortality in the U.S., it is important for nurses to mobilize our considerable influence on patient care to advocate for smoking cessation.

The research examined the question is there a difference in post intervention smoking behavior between smokers who have an indigenous helper compared with those who do not among adult FreshStart participants.

The Transtheoretical Model of behavior change (TTM) is often used as a framework for smoking cessation programs. This study examined whether the TTM was useful in research to predict smoking behavior. An intervention was based on the TTM construct “processes of change.” Helping relationships was the process of change selected as the intervention. An indigenous helper from the smoker’s social network was designated by the intervention group participants.

A two-group, two-time, five-week multi-site experimental design was used. The outcome variable, smoking behavior, was measured in two ways: point prevalence and forward movement along the stages of change. Participants (N = 111) were recruited from five sites with regular FreshStart programs. Each one completed the Stage of Change Questionnaire, Processes of Change helping relationships subscale and Partner Interaction Questionnaire-20 at baseline and four weeks.

Logistic regressions and ANOVA were used in the analysis.

The use of an indigenous helper did not predict smoking cessation, however, use of Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) and/or bupropion did. The findings did not support the use of the TTM process of change helping relationships to promote smoking cessation. The results do lend further support to the mounting literature supporting use of NRT/bupropion for smoking cessation.