Print‐based self‐help interventions for smoking cessation | Figure 1

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Print‐based self‐help interventions for smoking cessation

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Cochrane Review; 75 studies comparing print‐based self‐help vs. no materials for smoking cessation

Key results

Eleven studies including over 13,000 people provided evidence of a small benefit of printed self‐help materials when provided on their own. Confidence in this evidence was only moderate, because these studies took place in high‐income countries, which makes them less relevant to people from lower‐income countries, who might benefit differently. When people used self‐help as well as receiving face‐to‐face advice on how to stop smoking (11 studies), there was no extra benefit compared with the effect of that advice without printed self‐help.

Thirty‐two studies provided written self‐help that was individually tailored, comparing it with either non‐tailored self‐help or nothing. Evidence based on ten studies including nearly 15,000 people showed that tailored self‐help was more helpful than nothing. Confidence in this evidence is moderate, because some of these studies might have had problems in the ways they were carried out that could have affected the results.

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