The Use of a Series of Related Nutrition and Health Education Sessions, in Conjunction with Self-Determination Theory, to Encourage Healthy Behavioral Change—A Preliminary Study for Smoking Cessation in Substance Abuse Treatment Facilities

Abstract

Currently, tobacco addiction is not commonly treated as other addictions during substance abuse treatment. This has been suggested as a substantial contribution to poor success rates of sobriety frequently seen after treatment. Self-determination theory posits that high intrinsic motivation is key for behavioral change and the Health Belief Model suggests that high perceive competency in one health behavior may yield increases in perceived competency with other health behaviors. The objective of the following study is to show that the introduction of a series of nutrition and health education sessions, which emphasizes the relationships between smoking, substance abuse, and nutrition, will result in increased self-determination (i.e. intrinsic motivation) and intentions to quit smoking for current smokers while in treatment for substance abuse addiction.

Data was collected for 32 weeks at an addiction treatment facility for adults. The intervention lasted 12 weeks and consisted of a series of nutrition and health education sessions and minor changes to facility staff protocol designed to encourage autonomy, competency, and relatedness for smoking cessation.

Results indicated significant increases in intention to quit smoking as well as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation towards cessation. After adjusting for age and income, results indicated differences were only associated with the top two age and income groups.

Based on our findings the intervention did increase both intentions and motivations to quit smoking. However, these results were isolated to adults over the age of 35 and those with income levels higher than $30,000 a year.