REDUCTION OF ENVIRONMENTAL TOBACCO-SMOKE EXPOSURE IN ASTHMATIC-CHILDREN - A 2-YEAR FOLLOW-UP

Study objective: To examine the long-term maintenance of a previously reported behavioral counseling intervention to reduce asthmatic childr en's exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), Participants: Fami lies of asthmatic children (6 to 17 years), including at least one par ent who smoked in the home, recruited from four pediatric allergy clin ics. Design: Participants were randomized to one of three groups: beha vioral counseling to reduce ETS exposure, self-monitoring control, and usual medical care control. Counseling concluded at month 6, and the original trial ended at month 12, Two follow-up interviews occurred at months 20 and 30. Measurements and results: The originally reported a nalysis of baseline to 12 months was reanalyzed with a more robust res tricted maximum likelihood procedure. The e-year follow-up period was analyzed similarly. Significantly greater change occurred in the couns eling group than the control groups and was sustained throughout the 2 years of follow-up. Further exploratory analyses suggested that print ed counseling materials given to all participants at month 12 (conclus ion of the original study) were associated with decreased exposure in the control groups. Conclusion: Such long-term maintenance of behavior change is highly unusual in the general behavioral science literature , let alone for addictive behaviors. We conclude that ETS exposure can be reduced and that a clinician-delivered treatment may provide subst antial benefit.