Reducing relapse for smoking cessation using augmented callback telephone counselling

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Tobacco use remains the largest preventable cause of disease and premature death in Australia. While there is an enormous literature on the health consequences of smoking and much literature on the effectiveness of a range of cessation interventions, understanding of the factors influencing successful cessation remain understudied and poorly understood. There is a growing body of work on the addictive nature of tobacco use (largely due to the nicotine) and, while this clearly plays a central role, the contribution of cognitive and behavioural factors remains important - tobacco use needs to be conceptualized as a bio-psycho-social phenomenon. Perhaps the greatest challenge in changing addictive behaviours is the problem of relapse. This research will test some promising theories about factors that influence relapse beyond the first week or so of abstinence through testing an intervention based on changing these factors. We will test whether the addition of extra lifestyle change strategies onto Quit Victoria's effective Callback counselling service reduces relapse from attempts to quit smoking. If the intervention is successful, it will result in demonstrably superior quit smoking protocols for use in telephone counselling and potentially other forms of intervention, and result in more people giving up smoking permanently, thus saving many lives. If the new intervention fails to improve cessation over the standard callback program, it will have advanced our understanding of the complexities of relapse prevention and thus make future development of successful interventions more likely.