Smoking cessation in primary care: a clinical effectiveness trial of two simple interventions

Background. Many primary care practices do not have systematic protocols to identify patients who smoke or to encourage clinicians to provide smoking cessation advice. We designed a study to assess the relative effectiveness of two brief interventions on screening for smoking, physician cessation advice and patient smoking cessation rates. Methods. We performed a nonrandomized comparison of alternative strategies for smoking cessation at a hospital-based adult primary care practice. Each intervention was implemented on a separate practice team. The “minimal” intervention consisted of a smoking status “vital sign” stamp which documented patient smoking status. The “enhanced” intervention consisted of a five-question form that assessed patient level of cessation readiness and provided cessation-counseling prompts for clinicians. Medical record documentation of screening for smoking and cessation advice and self-reported patient smoking cessation rates were collected 8–10 months after implementation. Results. Smoking status was documented at 86%, 91%, and 49%, and cessation advice at 38%, 47%, and 30% of visits on the minimal, enhanced, and control teams, respectively (P < 0.001 for smoking status and P = 0.014 for advice). Self-reported patient smoking cessation was higher on the enhanced team (12%) compared with the minimal (2%) and control (4%) teams (P < 0.001). Conclusions. A short questionnaire that assesses readiness-to-quit and provides documentation of cessation advice improves rates of clinician cessation advice and patient smoking cessation compared with no intervention.