COMPUTERIZED TAILORED FEEDBACK TO CHANGE COGNITIVE DETERMINANTS OF SMOKING - A DUTCH FIELD EXPERIMENT

In the last decade, attempts have been made to improve the efficacy of minimal interventions by tailoring them to individual features. In th e development of these tailored interventions, it is important to know which information in interventions is essential. Most smoking cessati on interventions contain information on the outcomes of quitting and s kills to be used in a quit attempt. The present study was designed to assess the cognitive changes caused by both sorts of information. Ther efore, 246 smokers who mere planning to quit within 6 months were rand omly assigned to three different conditions. In the first condition, t he respondents received a computer-generated tailored letter on the ou tcomes of smoking cessation. In the second condition, the respondents received a computer-generated tailored letter containing self-efficacy enhancing information, mainly on skills. In both conditions, the cont ents of the letters were based on the pre-test scores of the participa nts. Participants in the control condition did not receive any cessati on information, The results show that information on the outcomes of q uitting changed expected outcomes while information on coping skills c hanged self-efficacy expectations, in comparison with the control cond ition. Comparing both experimental conditions, information on the outc omes led to changes in expected outcomes, whereas information on copin g skills did not lead to higher self-efficacy expectations than inform ation on the outcomes of quitting. It is concluded that the hypothesiz ed effects were partly verified.