ALSO Project Changes Milwaukee Smokers’ Perceptions on Quitting and Increases Their Motivation to Quit

The Ask, Link, Share information and Offer Intervention (ALSO) project has been well underway since Oct. 1 through a Milwaukee-based community organization and under the leadership of UW-CTRI Researcher Bruce Christiansen. This study involves intervening with smokers through the help of Salvation Army officials.

During the intervention, the smoker receives a 13-minute (on average) intervention where they are first asked a series of questions that address their beliefs about smoking. The intervention includes two parts. Each participant is asked which they believe are the best approaches when trying to quit smoking. The options include:

• Quitting cold turkey.
• Will power paired with medicine.
• Will power paired with hypnosis.
• A combination of will power, medicine and coaching. Most participants do not realize that the combination of will power, medicine and coaching is the best way to break an addiction.

The second part of the study encourages the smoker to seek help via the Wisconsin Tobacco Quit Line. Before the study, many of the participants didn’t believe they had access to treatment. Christiansen said the ALSO intervention helps shatter that myth.
           
The ALSO project has a few more months to go, but Christiansen has already seen progress. For example, those who received the intervention were able to correctly identify that the combination of will power, medicine and coaching provided the best odds for success. Participants have also been more likely to want to quit smoking after receiving the intervention.

In contrast, those who did not receive the intervention were less likely to be motivated to quit smoking and were unable to identify which were the most successful options when attempting to quit tobacco use.