Abstract
Objective: The effects of motivational interviews in encouraging patients who were identified to be smokers of tobacco products and expressed satisfaction from smoking, during the periodic health examinations, to quit smoking are investigated.
Materials and Methods:
This crossectional descriptive study included 181 patients who admitted to Family Medicine department of Inonu University School of Medicine between January 2011 and May 2012 for periodic health examination and identified to be smokers and satisfied with this situation. These individuals were invited for control for the next first, second and third months and their thoughts and status about smoking were questioned and they were notified about the harmful effects of nicotine addiction and provided with documented support, in every meeting.
Results: 137 (75.6%) of the participants were males and 44 (24.4%) were females. During the follow-up, in the first month, 7.2% of the men (n = 10) and 11.3% of the women (n = 5) denoted that they believe the harmful effects of smoking and requested support for quitting smoking. At the end of the second month 8.6% of the men (n= 11) and 20.5% of women (n = 8) and at the end of the third month 10.3% of the men (n = 12) and 29% of women (n = 9) stated that they believed the harmful effects of smoking and requested support for quitting smoking.
Conclusion: Motivational interviewing techniques should always be used in the process of quitting smoking. It should not given up to keep on following up individuals immediately after the first questioning and interview, even if they are reluctant about quitting smoke; and their status of smoking should be questioned, the issue should be reminded until an awareness is established. Our study revealed that individuals become increasingly convicted to get support on this issue due to awareness established in repeated interviews.

Key words: motivational interviewing; periodic inspection, smoking