STOP Non-Tailored Letter

Background

The STOP (Smoking Termination with cOmputerised Personalisation) project explored the effect of sending smokers smoking-cessation letters, both computer-tailored and non-tailored. A randomised controlled clinical trial showed that recipients of these letters had higher cessation rates than a control group. The non-tailored letter was as effective as the computer tailored letter, and is a very cost-effective smoking cessation intervention. For more information, please see the STOP home page.

Several people have contacted us and asked if they could use the STOP non-tailored letter. We provide here a downloadable version of it. Please feel free to modify the letter to suit local circumstances! At minimum you should insert your own practice logo and title to replace "The Health Centre". In the STOP clinical trial an Aberdeen University logo was also included, in the top left corner of the first page, opposite the practice logo.

The letter is intended to be printed out or photocopied as double-sided A4, and then folded in half to produce 4 sheets of A5. You may need to adjust the letter slightly to get it to print correctly on your printer.

Copyright

Copyright to the STOP non-tailored letter is held by the Chief Scientist Office of the Department of Health of the Scottish Executive. The CSO gives permission for individuals and organisations to use the STOP non-tailored letter for non-commercial purposes (including GP's sending copies of the letter to their patients), provided that the letters contain the CSO copyright at the bottom of the last page.

Download

• Microsoft Word document (45KB)