ANALYSIS OF A MULTICOMPONENT SMOKING CESSATION PROJECT - WHAT WORKED AND WHY

Background. Health promotion interventions often contain several, conc eptually diverse elements. As a result, it is often difficult to deter mine why interventions succeed or fail as well as which components sho uld be retained or eliminated. One method to examine the effectiveness of individual intervention elements is process analysis. Methods. Kic k It! is a multicomponent smoking cessation intervention developed for lower socioeconomic African Americans. The intervention includes seve ral components, including a 24-page printed cessation manual, a staged -cessation video, a quit contract, two ''Quit and Win'' contests, and a single telephone booster call. Using data from a randomized interven tion trial designed to test the efficacy of the Kick It! intervention, this article examines the use, impact, and interaction of the interve ntion's subcomponents as well as possible mediating variables related to successful quitting among intervention participants (n = 650). Resu lts. In univariate as well as multivariate analyses adjusting for age and stage of change, two of the five elements, watching the video and entering a Quit and Win contest, were significantly associated with 6- month point prevalence abstinence. Submitting a quit contract and rece iving the booster call were significantly associated with quitting in univariate analyses, while reading the Kick It! guide was not signific antly associated with quitting in either analysis. Conclusions. Despit e the positive effects observed for individual elements, quitting was not significantly greater among intervention relative to comparison su bjects. The primary reason for this appears to be the overall lack of intervention use. Additional research examining strategies to increase use of the Kick It! intervention components as well as the optimal se quencing and combination of components may be warranted. (C) 1997 Acad emic Press.