Effectiveness of Health Education and Counseling on Stages of Change in Smoking Cessation Behavior, Smoking Decisional Balance, and Self-efficacy of Smoking Cessation: A Prospective Self-control Study

Patients diagnosed with coronary heart disease by a medical center and smoked habitually were recruited as participants through convenience sampling. The research period was divided into a control stage (first to fourth week: standard of care) and the experimental stage (fifth to eighth week: health education and counseling). In the control stage, participants only received standard nursing care. In the experimental stage, intervention measures (health education and counseling) were implemented. The baseline data were the pretest data collected in the control stage. Four weeks later, a posttest was performed, namely the pretest of the experimental stage. Subsequently, 4 weeks of health education and counseling were introduced to smokers according to different stages. After 4 weeks of intervention, participants were asked to fill out the posttest questionnaire again to measure the stages of change for smoking cessation, smoking decisional balance, and self-efficacy of smoking cessation.