A Computer-Assisted Brief Motivational Intervention for Smoking During Pregnancy: The Healthy Pregnancy Project (HPP)

Participants & Procedure

Women will be approached while in the waiting room of various clinics at the Detroit Medical Center. Clinic staff will inform patients of the study and its goals via a flyer that will be distributed at the reception window as women arrive for their appointments. If the women are interested, they will answer some questions and provide their contact information on the back of the flyer. Then they will place the flyer in a ballot box that is locked and only can be accessed by the Research Staff. Research staff may also be at the clinic to recruit women from the waiting room. When the research staff meets with potential participants. The study will be briefly described, and those indicating tentative interest will be screened for age and language ability (informally). Those indicating tentative interest, reporting age of at least 18 years, gestation 27 weeks or less, and demonstrating adequate ability to speak and understand spoken English will be brought to a nearby private room.

First, informed consent for screening will be obtained using an information sheet; this sheet will describe the purpose of the screening, and will emphasize that participation in the initial screening is anonymous. Those who agree will be given a very brief demonstration of the use of the computer, after which they will complete the brief (10-item) screener. All interactions with the computer will involve a touch-screen and headphones for private presentation of all information aurally as well as visually; in many previous studies, including pilot testing at this clinic, the software has been proven extremely easy to use, even for women lacking any prior computer experience. Those who endorse smoking cigarettes (even a puff) in the past week will be told of the full study in detail, and written informed consent will be sought (with a brief quiz to assure understanding). Those who provide consent will again interact directly with the computer.

Intervention

The computer itself will perform randomization and will gather all research data except for baseline breath CO (which is higher among persons who smoke), which will be obtained (via a Micro Smokerlyzer® from Bedfont Scientific Ltd.) and entered into the computer by the research staff. The entire process, including consent, will take approximately 40 minutes regardless of experimental condition (to which the research staff will be blind). Research staff will tell clinic staff of the patient's whereabouts so that the patient is not passed over when staff call her to an exam room; unfinished study procedures will be completed in the exam room prior to the physician's entrance, and/or after the appointment is completed.