A tailored intervention to support pharmacy-based counseling for smoking cessation

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Behavioral Science
• Pharmacology

Background:

• Pharmacists are well-positioned to offer smoking cessation support.
• Barriers like time, reimbursement, and training hinder pharmacist-led counseling.
• A computer-driven system, Exper_Quit (EQ), was developed to aid pharmacists.

Purpose of the Study:

• To test the effectiveness of the Exper_Quit (EQ) software system.
• To assess EQ's impact on pharmacist-delivered smoking cessation counseling.
• To evaluate EQ's influence on patient quit attempts and abstinence rates.

Main Methods:

• A two-phase study design was employed.
• An observation-only group (OBS) was recruited, followed by 200 participants randomized to EQ-assisted counseling or EQ with nicotine patch (EQ+).
• Both groups received pharmacist counseling calls; EQ+ included 8 weeks of nicotine patch therapy.

Main Results:

• Participants in EQ and EQ+ groups received counseling, unlike OBS.
• Quit attempts at 6 months were higher in EQ (76%) and EQ+ (65%) groups versus OBS (42%).
• Six-month abstinence rates were 15% (EQ) and 28% (EQ+), significantly higher than OBS (8%). EQ+ showed double the quit likelihood of EQ.

Conclusions:

• Tailored software, like Exper_Quit (EQ), enhances smoking cessation counseling delivery by pharmacists.
• The EQ system successfully increased counseling delivery, quit attempts, and quit rates.
• Pharmacists are crucial for effective smoking cessation interventions.