Motivational Interviewing for Smoking Cessation and Increase of Physical Activity in Adults

Smoking is a practice in which a substance is burned and the resulting smoke breathed in to be tasted and absorbed into the bloodstream. And for many people, smoking is associated with enjoyment, but provided evidence indicates it as a disastrous habit. Nowadays, nicotine addiction is viewed more of a psychological than a physical dependency since smoking has been classified in addictions. And several types of psychological techniques have been developed, aiming in increasing the effectiveness of smoking cessation interventions.

This study investigated if and how an individual counseling program, based on motivational interviewing, affected lifestyle changes that contributed to smoking cessation and physical activity enhancement. And it was carried out in Trikala, a town located in central Greece. The participants were 8 adults, aged 25 - 54 (mean age = 38.5), 2 men and 6 women. The program consisted of 12 individual weekly counseling sessions based on motivational interviewing. There was a 9-month follow-up (monthly sessions, weekly telephone calls). A semi-structured interview was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the program after the intervention. Qualitative content analysis was used, along with the In Vivo Software in organizing the data from the interview.

The results indicated that at the end of the follow-up, three participants stopped smoking, four participants turned to light smokers (<10 cigarettes per day) and only one person failed to change smoking behavior. The participants reported that the discussion and communication with the advisor were very helpful, such as the support, the commitment, the resistance and the goal setting techniques.

All in all, the gains that the participants experienced were a general life-style change, smoking cessation or smoking reduction, motivation, sensitization, self-esteem, self-knowledge, safeness, stress reduction, relaxation and better physical condition. And it seems that motivational interviewing greatly contributes to helping adults to quit or reduce smoking and adopt a healthier lifestyle.

Article by Despoina Leontari, et al, from Greece and Norway.

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Image by University of Birmingham Graduate School, from Flickr-cc.