Effectiveness of intensive group and individual interventions for smoking cessation in primary health care settings: a randomized trial

Abstract

ObjectivesPrimary: To compare the effectiveness of intensive group and individual interventions for smoking cessation in a primary health care setting; secondary: to identify the variables associated with smoking cessation.MethodsThree-pronged clinical trial with randomisation at the individual level. We performed the following: an intensive individual intervention (III), an intensive group intervention (IGI) and a minimal intervention (MI). Included in the study were smokers who were prepared to quit smoking. Excluded from the study were individuals aged less than 18 years or with severe mental conditions or terminal illnesses. The outcome measure was continued abstinence at 12 months confirmed through CO-oximetry (CO). The analysis was based on intention to treat.ResultsIn total, 287 smokers were recruited: 81 in the III, 111 in the IGI, and 95 in the MI. Continued abstinence at 12 months confirmed through CO was 7.4% in the III, 5.4% in the IGI, and 1% in the MI. No significant differences were noted between III and MI on the one hand, and between IGI and MI on the other [RR 7.04 (0.9-7.2) and RR 5.1 (0.6-41.9), respectively]. No differences were noted between IGI and III [RR 0.7 (0.2-2.2)]. In multivariate analysis, only overall visit length showed a statistically significant association with smoking cessation.ConclusionsThe effectiveness of intensive smoking interventions in this study was lower than expected. No statistically significant differences were found between the results of individual and group interventions.Trial registration numberISRCTN32323770

Behavioral Interventions to Enhance Smoking Cessation

“…For example, a 2005 meta-analysis reviewed 55 randomized controlled trials and found group counseling to be more effective than self-help methods or no intervention controls. 96 More recent studies have examined the effects of group counseling when delivered by health care providers 97 and when delivered in a community setting. 98 Results are mixed, but given the potential for group counseling to be less expensive than other types of counseling, more work is warranted.…”

Behaviour change techniques: the development and evaluation of a taxonomic method for reporting and describing behaviour change interventions (a suite of five studies involving consensus methods, randomised controlled trials and analysis of qualitative data)

“…Extract from: Ramos et al 141 © 2010 Ramos et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.…”

Combining Individual and Group Counselling Sessions in a Smoking Cessation Intervention

“…There are also similar results in other studies, supporting that the participation of an individual in a group counselling program for smoking cessation, seems to increase the chances of cessation (Stead &Lancaster, 2009). However, although several studies agree that higher smoking cessation rates were achieved in group interventions rather than individual, no statistically significant differences have been reported (Ramos et al, 2010).…”

“…Group counselling doesn't seem to be effective in all cases. The investigation of Ramos et al (2010), which was designed to compare the effectiveness of individual and group interventions for smoking cessation in primary care showed that there were no statistically significant differences between the results of individual and group interventions. Weiss et al (2004), concluding their study, which was designed to compare the group treatment with other forms of treatment regarding substance use by saying that no type of therapy (group or individual) has not been proved to be more effective than others.…”