Objectives: Preliminary study to evaluate the results of a programme to help smokers.
Design: Study involving direct intervention, with control group, and with random distribution in experiment group and control group. SITE. The study was carried out in the patients' visits of the five doctors at Primary Attention on the afternoon shift, "V Centennary" Health Centre, San Sebastián de los Reyes, Madrid.
Patients: 102 smokers aged from 21 to 67 years who attended the appointments for any reason were selected.
Intervention: The participants in the experiment group (n = 48) were given a structured talk which lasted ten minutes and were supplied with a "Guide to Giving up Smoking". The control group (n = 50) were advised to give up the habit. We checked consumption by telephoning subjects, after 30 days, 90 and 180.
Main measurements and results: After 30 days 12 individuals (25%) from the experiment group had given up smoking, and 4 (8%) from the control group. After 90 days 12 subjects from the former group did not smoke (25%) compared with 3 (6%) from the latter. After 6 months 10 out of the former group did not smoke (20.8%) and 5 individuals from the latter (10%) (not significant).
Conclusions: Subjects were positively receptive to the medical advice received from their doctors. The level of non-smoking observed after 6 months is clinically significant, although the difference between the two groups is not statistically significant, possibly as a result of the small size of the sample.