Is stress management training a useful addition to physician advice and nicotine replacement therapy during smoking cessation in women? Results of a randomized trial.

Purpose: To determine whether a stress management (SM) program could improve cessation rates when added to usual care (UC) among women attempting to quit smoking.

Design: Randomized controlled trial conducted during a 12-month period.

Setting: Smoking cessation clinics located within two tertiary care centers in Ottawa, Ontario.

Subjects: A total of 332 women smokers 19 years or older who smoked 10 or more cigarettes per day were recruited via advertisements. INTERVENTION. Either UC (physician advice and nicotine replacement therapy) or UC plus an eight-session group SM training program (coping skills development relevant to smoking-specific and generic stressors).

Measures: Point prevalence abstinence 2 and 12 months after study intake. A secondary outcome of interest was change in perceived stress during the intervention period.

Results: On an intent-to-treat basis, the addition of SM to UC had no incremental effect on 2- or 12-month abstinence rates. Abstinence rates at 2 months were 26.2% vs. 31.7% in the UC and SM groups, respectively (p = .59). At 12 months, the rates were 18.5% vs. 20.7% (p = .86). When quit rates were compared including only participants who demonstrated adequate adherence to the intervention protocol, there was a significant difference between the UC and SM groups at 2 months (34.9% vs. 48.7%; adjusted odds ratio, 1.88; 95% confidence interval, 1.04-3.42; p = .04) but not at 12 months (23.0% vs. 28.2%; adjusted odds ratio, 1.24; 95% confidence interval, .64-2.41; p = .53). There was a significant reduction in perceived stress from preintervention to postintervention; however, this decrease was not moderated by group assignment.

Conclusion: The addition of SM in our setting neither increased abstinence rates nor reduced perceived stress over and above UC in women motivated to quit smoking. Poor attendance at the SM intervention undermined its effectiveness.