%0 Journal Article
%T The Pap smear screening as an occasion for smoking cessation and physical activity counselling: baseline characteristics of women involved in the SPRINT randomized controlled trial
%A Elisabetta Chellini
%A Giuseppe Gorini
%A Giulia Carreras
%A Livia Giordano
%A Emanuela Anghinoni
%A Anna Iossa
%A Cristina Bellati
%A Elisa Grechi
%A Alessandro Coppo
%A Fiorella Talassi
%A Maria Giovacchini
%A the SPRINT Working Group
%J BMC Public Health
%D 2011
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1471-2458-11-906
%X Among women undergoing the Pap examination in three study centres (Florence, Turin, Mantua), participants were randomized to the smoking cessation counselling [S], the smoking cessation + PA counselling [S + PA], or the control [C] groups. The program under evaluation is a standard brief counselling on smoking cessation combined with a brief counselling on increasing PA, and was delivered in 2010. A questionnaire, administered before, after 6 months and 1 year from the intervention, was used to track behavioural changes in tobacco use and PA, and to record cessation rates in participants.Out of the 5,657 women undergoing the Pap examination, 1,100 participants (55% of smokers) were randomized in 1 of the 3 study groups (363 in the S, 366 in the S + PA and 371 in the C groups). The three arms did not differ on any demographic, PA, or tobacco-use characteristics. Recruited smokers were older, less educated than non-participant women, more motivated to quit (33% vs.9% in the Preparation stage, p < 0.001), smoked more cigarettes per day (12 vs.9, p < 0.001), and were more likely to have already done 1 or more quit attempts (64% vs.50%, p < 0.001). The approach of SPRINT study appeared suitable to enrol less educated women who usually smoke more and have more difficulties to quit.ISRCTN: ISRCTN52660565Smoking is the leading cause of death and of many diseases for both men and women [1]. Since 1980, several surveys carried out by the Italian Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) showed a lower smoking decreasing trend in women (from 19.2% in 1986 to 17.0% in 2009) in comparison to men (from 41.6% in 1986 to 29.5% in 2009), and a younger age of initiation in girls, suggesting the need for gender-specific tobacco control strategies [2]. The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control also called for gender-specific prevention strategies [3]. However, these strategies, in particular on smoking cessation, have rarely been developed, except those for pregnant women [4], also in Italy [5
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/11/906