An intervention that combines brief smoking cessation advice with active referral to smoking cessation services was more effective among smokers at 6 months than only brief general advice, according to data published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
“Smoking cessation services providing evidence-based interventions improve quitting substantially, but only 16% of smokers ever use [smoking cessation] services worldwide. Low-cost and effective methods are needed to increase the use of [smoking cessation] clinics or quitlines and thus quit rates,” researchers wrote.
Between June 2015 and Sept 2015, researchers performed a single-blind, pragmatic cluster randomized clinical trial to compare the effectiveness of three interventions among community smokers: brief smoking cessation advice plus active referral to smoking cessation services (active referral group), brief smoking cessation advice only (brief advice group) and general smoking advice only (control group).
