Smoking cessation interventions with female smokers living with HIV/AIDS: A randomized pilot study of motivational interviewing

Abstract

Smoking among people living with HIV, particularly women living with HIV, is associated with higher morbidity and mortality rates when compared to nonsmoking individuals with HIV. Despite patients’ higher risk of adverse health outcomes, in particular preventable smoking-related diseases for smokers living with HIV, few smoking cessation interventions have been examined with this population. The aim of the current study was to test the potential efficacy of a brief motivational intervention for smoking cessation with HIV-infected women smokers. Participants (N=30) were randomly assigned to receive a single session of motivational interviewing (MI) or prescribed advice (PA). The primary outcome was seven-day point prevalence abstinence at the one-month follow-up interview. Secondary outcome measures included mean cigarettes smoked per day, desire to quit smoking, perceived difficulty in quitting smoking, and expectation of success. We detected no significant differences between intervention and control groups in self-reported seven-day point prevalence abstinence at the one-month follow-up. However, participants in the MI condition reported a significant decrease in the mean cigarettes smoked per day when compared to the PA condition. There were no significant between-group differences in participants’ desire to quit, perceived difficulty, and expectation of success. The results of this pilot study indicate that MI may be an effective smoking cessation intervention for HIV-positive women smokers and should be studied further in a larger clinical trial.

Keywords:

• smoking
• motivational interviewing
• psychosocial interventions

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (T32 DA007250), the NIDA San Francisco Treatment Research Center (P50 DA009253), and by University of California's Center for AIDS Prevention (A105651). The authors would like to thank the patients and staff of the UCSF Positive Health Program at San Francisco General Hospital for their assistance with this project. Portions of this manuscript were presented at the 2012 annual meeting of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence.