Letting smokers look at ultrasound images of their own atherosclerotic plaques improves smoking cessation rates

Half of 155 smokers recruited from a community based heart health study were randomly assigned to either receive or not receive ultrasonography of their left and right carotid and femoral arteries. Of those receiving ultrasonography, those individuals who were found to have one or more atherosclerotic plaques were shown photos of their plaques. Thus there were 3 groups of smokers:

1. smokers not randomized to ultrasonography,
2. smokers randomized to ultrasonography with no plaques evident and therefore not shown any photos, and
3. smokers randomized to ultrasonography with plaques and shown their photos along with a 5-min explanation of the significance of the plaques and their impact on health. All participants received 10 mins quit-smoking counseling by a physician.

Six months after the interventions, 5% of smokers who were not shown ultrasonography photos quit, but 22% of smokers who were shown photos of their plaques quit. This is quite an impressive difference!

It may be that seeing what their smoking did to their bodies was somewhat of a wakeup call for many these smokers; that smoking was no longer viewed as a remote hazard but rather the cause of a current and very real problem.

DiClemente, C. C., Marinilli, A. S., Singh, M., & Bellino, L. E. (2001). The role of feedback in the process of health behavior change. American Journal of Health Behaviour, 25(3), 217-227.