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Key Publications in Behavior Change

Study Examples | Key Publications | Intro

A few key publications follow:

Maternal smoking is the single most important modifiable cause of poor pregnancy outcomes in the United States. This article looks at the rationale and evidence for using biomarker feedback to help pregnant women, who may underestimate smoking’s risks, to quit. Providing tangible evidence of smoking-related risk may help motivate future cessation attempts as a cessation aid during pregnancy. It presents limitations of the existing research and key considerations for future investigations.

—McClure, JB (2004). Motivating prepartum smoking cessation: A consideration of biomarker feedback. Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 6 (Suppl 2): S153–S161.

This randomized trial evaluated an intervention for reducing at-risk alcohol use: chronic drinking, binging, and driving after drinking. Members of the intervention group received a message from their physician during their regularly scheduled visit, a self-help manual, written personalized feedback, and up to three telephone counseling calls. Improvements to the intervention are needed, because people in the intervention group tended to quit the trial more often than did those in the control group.

—Curry SJ, Ludman EJ, Grothaus LC, Donovan D, Kim E (2003). A randomized trial of a brief primary-care-based intervention for reducing at-risk drinking practices. Health Psychology, 22 (2): 156–165.

Pediatric clinics are good places to help socioeconomically disadvantaged women quit smoking. Those who get a brief intervention during their children’s clinic visits and up to three follow-up phone calls are twice as likely to stay quit as long as a year later. These results encourage implementation of evidence-based clinical guidelines for smoking cessation in pediatric practice.

—Curry SJ, Ludman EJ, Graham E, Stout J, Grothaus L, Lozano P (2003). Pediatric-based smoking cessation intervention for low-income women: a randomized trial. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 157 (3): 295–302.

In this study of 1,210 single, sexually active, 18- to 24-year-old women, half received care as usual at Group Health and Duke University Family Medical Center. The other half got a self-help intervention that included individually tailored advice based on the specific concerns each woman raised during a phone interview when joining the study. The results? Significantly more women in the intervention group carried condoms and discussed and used them regularly with their partners.

—Scholes D, McBride CM, Grothaus L, Civic D, Ichikawa LE, Fish LJ, Yarnall KS (2003). A tailored minimal self-help intervention to promote condom use in young women: results from a randomized trial. AIDS, 17 (10): 1547–1556.

To spur their patients to change their health behaviors, providers often show them evidence of harm to their bodies; but further study is needed to back up this approach. This literature review of eight randomized trials suggests that when combined with appropriate behavioral treatment, feedback from biomarkers (such as cholesterol level, carbon monoxide level, and depressed breathing function) may indeed enhance behavior change.

—McClure JB (2002). Are biomarkers useful treatment aids for promoting health behavior change? an empirical review. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 22 (3): 200–207.

Study Examples | Key Publications | Intro

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