SynthesisQuality in health care : QHC1994
Effectiveness of training health professionals to provide smoking cessation interventions: systematic review of randomised controlled trials.
Synthesis in Quality in health care : QHC, 1994. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT00297700 (Implementing Tobacco Control in Dental Practice), which is not on this map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Implementing Tobacco Control in Dental Practice
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Training health professionals in smoking cessation.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2012Pooled it
- Documented Tobacco Cessation Care and Patient Outcomes in Malawi: Analysis of Post-Training Clinical Records.Advances in medical education and practice · 2026Article
- Exploring the capacity of smoking cessation services in the Philippines.Tobacco prevention & cessation · 2026Article
- Explaining the determinants of hookah consumption among women in southern Iran: a qualitative study.BMC public health · 2019Article
- Knowledge translation tools for parents on child health topics: a scoping review.BMC health services research · 2017Article
- Improving the health of Canadians: Why a certification program for tobacco educators is necessary.Canadian journal of respiratory therapy : CJRT = Revue canadienne de la therapie respiratoire : RCTR · 2015Article
- Training nurses in the treatment of tobacco use and dependence: pre- and post-training results.Journal of advanced nursing · 2011Article
- Closing the gap between research and practice: an overview of systematic reviews of interventions to promote the implementation of research findings. The Cochrane Effective Practice and Organization of Care Review Group.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 1998Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo assess the effectiveness of interventions that train healthcare professionals in methods for improving the quality of care delivered to patients who smoke.
designSystematic literature review.
settingPrimary care medical and dental practices in the United States and Canada. Patients were recruited opportunistically. SUBJECTS: 878 healthcare professionals and 11,228 patients who smoked and were identified in eight randomised controlled trials. In each of these trials healthcare professionals received formal training in smoking cessation, and their performance was compared with that of a control group. MAIN MEASURES: Point prevalence rates of abstinence from smoking at six or 12 months in patients who were smokers at baseline. Rates of performance of tasks of smoking cessation by healthcare professionals, including offering counselling, setting dates to stop smoking, giving follow up appointments, distributing self help materials, and recommending nicotine gum.
methodsTrials were identified by multiple methods. Data were abstracted according to predetermined criteria by two observers. When possible, meta-analysis was performed using a fixed effects model and the results were subjected to sensitivity analysis.
resultsHealthcare professionals who had received training were significantly more likely to perform tasks of smoking cessation than untrained controls. There was a modest increase in the odds of stopping smoking for smokers attending health professionals who had received training compared with patients attending control practitioners (odds ratio 1.35 (95% confidence interval 1.09 to 1.68)). This result was not robust to sensitivity analysis. The effects of training were increased if prompts and reminders were used. There was no definite benefit found for more intensive forms of counselling compared with minimal contact strategies.
conclusionsTraining health professionals to provide smoking cessation interventions had a measurable impact on professional performance. A modest, but non-robust, effect on patient outcome was also found, suggesting that training alone is unlikely to be an effective strategy for improving quality of care, unless organisational and other factors are also considered.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.