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. 2017 Feb 14;2017(2):CD001055. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD001055.pub5

Bullock 1995.

Methods 2‐armed randomised controlled trial of telephone support for improving maternal health outcomes, including smoking cessation during pregnancy.
Study conducted in a metropolitan city in the south island of New Zealand from March to December 1993.
Participants Inclusion criteria: Women with telephone access, who were either single or with an unemployed partner, less than 20 weeks' gestation.
Exclusion criteria: None stated.
Recruitment: Recruited in the outpatient department of a large maternity hospital, or its associated GP practices, or self‐referral via an introductory letter, phone call, and full discussion of "Healthy Mothers/Healthy Babies".
The eligible population was 221 women of whom 49 were never located, 23 were not interested, 10 refused after explanation, and 8 moved away, did not speak English or had a miscarriage. 131 (59%) participated (103 OPD, 22 from GPs, 6 self‐referred) (C = 66, I = 65 randomised). Just over 50% were smokers (C = 35, I = 31).
 Baseline characteristics: Mean cigarettes per day at baseline = 6.
88% European, 10% Maori. 53% single.
Progress + coding: Low SES.
Interventions Control: Package of publicly available educational material on healthy behaviours during pregnancy.
 Intervention: Package plus weekly telephone call from trained volunteer with the aim of providing minimal support until 12 weeks after birth; aim "to be a friend and a good listener"; to ask about symptoms; signs; alcohol; drugs; smoking and meals in every call; to encourage attendance at AN clinic appointments and to ask about "feeling stressed".
 Intervention provided by 19 female volunteers, trained for the project with a "case load" of 2 to 6 women each.
Main intervention strategy: Maternal health intervention with smoking component: Social support (single intervention) compared to a less intensive intervention.
Intensity: Frequency (C = 2, I = 6); Duration (C = 1, I = 4).
Intervention provided by project staff: efficacy study.
Outcomes Self‐reported abstinence at 34/40 (late pregnancy*).
Mean cigarettes per day*.
Anxiety (Speilbergers State anxiety score) and depression (Levine Pilowsky Depression inventory) at baseline and 34/40; stress; social support; self‐esteem. There were other intervention components which might have influenced these outcomes.
Notes No process evaluation is reported. No sample size justification.
SDs for mean cigarettes per day were not reported, therefore we calculated a mean SD from 14 studies with available mean cigarette SDs (6.5) to include in this review, as recommended by the cochrane handbook.
Risk of bias
Bias Authors' judgement Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias) Low risk Computer‐generated random assignment to control or intervention in balanced blocks of 50.
Allocation concealment (selection bias) Unclear risk No information provided.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) 
 All outcomes High risk Data being reported were analysed on 122/131 of randomised women (control = 63/66, intervention = 59/65). 1 woman requested to be removed from the study, but there were 8 women who for various reasons had incomplete data. p477 4.5% control 9.2% intervention. Only a proportion were smokers (I = 31, C = 35), and the attrition among these is not reported so we were unable to re‐include them in the analysis for this review.
Selective reporting (reporting bias) Unclear risk None apparent.
Other bias Low risk No other bias detected.
Biochemical validation of smoking abstinence (detection bias) High risk No biochemical validation of reported smoking behaviour.
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) 
 All outcomes Unclear risk Caregiver blinded to allocation. Women not blinded to intervention.
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) 
 All outcomes Unclear risk Not reported.
Incomplete implementation Unclear risk No process evaluation.
Equal baseline characteristics in study arms Unclear risk Baseline psychosocial variables (stress; social support; self‐esteem; depression; anxiety) reported in Table 2. Demographic variables not reported.
Contamination of control group Unclear risk Care providers blinded to allocation and not involved in intervention delivery.