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Training health professionals in smoking cessation
T Lancaster1, C Silagy, G Fowler
1ICRF General Practice Research Group, Division of Public Health and Primary Health Care, Institute of Health Sciences, Old Road, Headington, Oxford, UK, OX3 7LF. tim.lancaster@dphpc.ox.ac.uk.
The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
|July 25, 2000
Summary
Training healthcare professionals in smoking cessation improved their performance of intervention tasks. However, this training did not significantly change patient smoking behavior, even with added prompts and reminders.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Behavioral Science
- Medical Education
Background:
- Brief interventions by healthcare professionals are effective for smoking cessation.
- Research is ongoing to determine if specialized training enhances professional success in helping patients quit smoking.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the effectiveness of training healthcare professionals in delivering smoking cessation interventions.
- To assess the impact of prompts and reminders on healthcare professionals' intervention rates.
Main Methods:
- Systematic review of randomized trials on healthcare professional training for smoking cessation.
- Included studies reporting patient smoking rates at least six months post-intervention.
- Extracted data on professional type, training details, and outcomes (abstinence, task performance).
Main Results:
- Trained professionals were more likely to perform smoking cessation tasks than untrained controls.
- Six of eight studies found no significant effect of training on patient smoking behavior.
- Training effects on professional performance were enhanced by prompts and reminders.
Conclusions:
- Training healthcare professionals in smoking cessation interventions measurably improved their performance of intervention tasks.
- There is insufficient robust evidence to conclude that such training alters patient smoking behavior.