Effectiveness of a brief counseling and behavioral intervention for smoking cessation in pregnant women

Background. Educational methods, type of intervention and intervenor, number of modalities used, duration, and number of reinforcing sessions are related to the success of an intervention for smoking cessation. The use of new intervention models for smoking cessation that can help pregnant smokers and the study of its impact in Public Maternities constitute a public health priority. Methods. A pre-test-post-test control group design was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a brief counseling and behavioral intervention among pregnant smokers in a public maternity hospital. At first visit, 33 patients were assigned consecutively to an experimental (E) group where they received the brief intervention and 24 were assigned to a control (C) group where they received usual care. Smoking status was reported by self-report and confirmed by expired air carbon monoxide at first visit and at 2 months follow-up. Results. Using an intention to treat analysis, tobacco abstinence was reported by 33.3% in the intervention group compared to 8.3% in the usual care group (P = 0.02) (OR = 5.5). Conclusions. Counseling and behavioral brief interventions seem to be promising approaches that can help women stop smoking during pregnancy. (c) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.