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Family Practice Vol. 19, No. 2, 154-160
© Oxford University Press 2002

Original Paper

A new method for describing smokers' consulting behaviours which indicate their motivation to stop smoking: an exploration of validity and reliability

Tim Colemana, Keith Stevensonb and Andrew Wilsonb

a Division of General Practice, School of Community Health Sciences, University of Nottingham, Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham NG7 2UH, UK. E-mail: tim.coleman{at}nottingham.ac.uk
b Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care, University of Leicester, Leicester General Hospital, Gwendolen Road, Leicester LE5 4PW, UK.

Background. Smokers vary in their readiness to try stopping smoking, but there currently are no objective tools for identifying smokers' consulting behaviours which indicate their level of motivation to try stopping smoking.

Objective. The aim of this study was to investigate the construct validity and inter-observer reliability of the Smokers' Motivation Code (SMC).

Methods. General practice consultations between 29 different Leicestershire GPs and their patients were video-recorded. In 47 consultations, regular or occasional smokers discussed smoking with their GPs and their consulting behaviour was coded using the SMC. The reliability of three different observers' codings was investigated. Construct validity was also investigated by comparing smokers' consulting behaviours coded using the SMC with measures of motivation to stop smoking recorded on pre-consultation questionnaires.

Results. Two pairs of observers achieved good reliability when using the SMC to code smokers' consulting behaviours during a subset of 11 video-recorded consultations. For readiness behaviours (indicating motivation to stop smoking), kappas were 0.82 and 0.65, and for resistance behaviours (indicating little motivation to stop smoking), kappas were 0.74 and 1.0. For the 37 consultations attended by regular smokers, complete pre-consultation questionnaires were obtained. Smokers displaying readiness behaviours were significantly more likely than others to report having tried to stop in the past year, thinking about or trying to stop and to agree that their health would improve if they stopped smoking. Smokers displaying resistant behaviours were significantly less likely to report thinking about stopping/trying to stop smoking.

Conclusion. We have provided some evidence to support the construct validity and inter-observer reliability of the SMC and have identified some consulting behaviours which might indicate smokers' motivation to stop smoking. Further work is needed to determine whether smokers' consulting behaviour can be used to predict future quit attempts.

Keywords. Consulting behaviour, reliability, Smokers' Motivation Code, validity.


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