MEASURING READINESS AND MOTIVATION TO QUIT SMOKING AMONG WOMEN IN PUBLIC-HEALTH CLINICS

We conducted a pilot test of an instrument to assess stage of readines s and level of motivation to change smoking behavior among 495 women s mokers in public health clinics. The stages of readiness were based on those proposed by Prochaska and DiClemente but with finer discriminat ion within the precontemplation stage. where a substantial minority (4 1%) of the target smokers were situated. Subdividing this earliest gro up, we found that 8% of the total sample planned no change in smoking ever: 8% were seriously thinking of cutting down: and 25% were serious ly thinking of quitting but not within 6 months. Scales in the questio nnaire included general motivation to change smoking behavior and conf idence in one's ability to do so. The women's scores differed on these scales and on action toward quitting across the five stages of readin ess, except that the lowest two groups did not differ on confidence. P regnancy enhanced readiness to quit. The instrument accommodates the b revity and low literacy requirements for use in these applied settings and is suitable for use in either self-administered questionnaire or interview format.