A Johns Hopkins-led research team has found that motivational interviewing, along with standard education and awareness programs, significantly reduced secondhand smoke exposure among children living in those households.
Motivational interviewing, a counseling strategy that gained popularity in the treatment of alcoholics, uses a patient-centered counseling approach to help motivate people to change behaviors. Experts say it stands in contrast to externally driven tactics, instead favoring to work with patients by acknowledging how difficult change is and by helping people devise and implement practical plans for change when they are ready.
In a report published online on June 15 in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, the research team says caregivers of children who received motivational interviewing combined with smoking risk education were more likely than a comparison group to set up home smoking bans and reduce harmful secondhand smoke exposure, as measured by air nicotine levels in the homes.
