Correspondence of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) reports of nicotine withdrawal, craving, and negative mood with questionnaire ratings.

This study focuses on comparing reports of nicotine withdrawal, craving, and depressive symptoms obtained using an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system and several questionnaires. As part of a smoking cessation trial, daily reports of withdrawal, craving, and negative mood were collected using an IVR system for 7 days after participants attempted to quit smoking, and several pencil and paper questionnaires (i.e., the Minnesota Nicotine Withdrawal Scale, the Questionnaire on Smoking Urges, and the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression) were completed a week after the target quit date. The sample was composed of 378 daily smokers. Moderate to high correlations were found between the research questionnaires obtained at the end of the week and the corresponding daily IVR reports of nicotine withdrawal, craving, and depressive symptoms. However, the sample size decreased on each day of IVR reporting due to attrition. Thus, an appealing aspect of daily assessment using an IVR system is that it can provide additional data that are not obtained with paper and pencil assessments given once per week, but it will be important for future studies to concentrate on improving adherence with the IVR system in this population.