Intervention Helps Sick Kids' Parents Stop Smoking
During a four-month
study, researchers helped many parents quit smoking after their children
were hospitalized for respiratory illnesses.
The researchers,
at Massachusetts General Hospital, used motivational interviews, written
materials, nicotine replacement therapy, phone counseling and referral
to primary care physicians as tools to encourage the parents of sick kids
to quit.
Of the smoking
parents in the study, 80 percent completed all counseling sessions. After
two months, half of the participants had stopped smoking for at least 24
hours and one-fifth were able to quit for the duration of the study.
There was no
control group, but more smokers in the study appeared to quit than the
yearly 2-to-3 percent of U.S. smokers who quit.
"Until now,
pediatricians have been afraid to address smoking when parents are stressed
about their child being sick," said lead study author Jonathan Winickoff.
"But the results show that parents are very receptive to the intervention."
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Copyright 2002 by United
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