A process evaluation of tobacco-related outcomes from a telephone and print-delivered intervention for motor freight workers

Interventions are needed to address the high prevalence of tobacco use among blue-collar, motor freight workers in the United States. In the present study, we conducted an evaluation of the Gear Up for Health study to evaluate which intervention components associated with this print- and telephone counseling-based tobacco intervention were associated with affecting psychosocial indicators of future quitting, number of quit attempts, and quitting tobacco. The sample is comprised of 64 baseline tobacco users. The intervention components evaluated were receipt of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), aspects of the counseling calls, the targeted and tailored print materials, and goal setting. The results indicated that several intervention components were related to tobacco cessation, and less frequently related to psychosocial indicators (i.e. intention and self-efficacy) and quit attempts. A higher percentage of those who quit using tobacco, versus not quitting, thought the number of calls were just right (100% vs. 75%), received NRT (87% vs. 56%), read most or all of the materials (100% vs. 70%), found the materials to be very helpful (87% vs. 30%), set tobacco goals (93% vs. 58%) and met these goals (100% vs. 44%) (p ≤ 0.05 for all). These results may be used in planning future interventions and indicated that perceptions of materials, call number, and call content may be more important than absolute call number or duration. Thus, the number and duration of counseling calls may be flexible and determined in response to the needs of participants.