Medical Student Counseling for Hospitalized Patients Addicted to Tobacco
Condition: Smoking Cessation Counselling; Medical Student Education
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The purpose of this randomized control trial is two- fold. The primary hypothesis of the
      study is that smoking cessation counseling delivered through trained medical students will
      lead to higher rates of abstinence amongst patients in the intervention group, as compared to
      a control group, when measured by self-reported and biochemical testing at 6 months after
      enrolment .

      The secondary hypothesis is that medical students engaging in a structured curriculum that
      includes counseling hospitalized smokers will show demonstrable increases in knowledge,
      confidence in their abilities, and use of smoking cessation techniques in regular practice.
    

Detailed description: 
      India is the 2nd largest consumer of tobacco in the world, with 275 million Indians using
      tobacco. Each hospitalization is an opportunity for providers to motivate their patients to
      quit. However, the Indian medical curriculum typically offers little training in the skills
      required to successfully counsel a patient to quit smoking. The investigators hypothesize
      that trained medical students can increase subsequent quit rates among hospitalized smokers,
      while acquiring skills in tobacco cessation counseling.

      The investigators propose a 2-armed multicenter randomized controlled trial (RCT) that will
      compare the effectiveness of standard hospital practice versus a medical student-guided
      smoking cessation program initiated inpatient and continued for three months after discharge.
      The target study population includes current smokers admitted to the general medicine,
      pulmonary and cardiology wards. These patients will be randomized to receive either usual
      care or the intervention. The intervention group will receive both inpatient and longitudinal
      post-discharge telephone counseling by medical students who have successfully completed a
      training workshop in tobacco cessation counseling and pharmacotherapy. The students can also
      recommend nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) to the patient if indicated. The control group
      will receive counseling and/or NRT at the discretion of the treating physician. They will not
      receive phone based counseling after discharge.

      Patients from both groups will be asked to report their quit status 6 months after enrolment.
    

Intervention name(s): Smoking Cessation Counseling
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Trained medical students will visit patients inpatient while hospitalized and provide smoking cessation counseling and recommend Nicotine Replacement Therapy. They will continue to follow these patients for 2 months after discharge and provide telephone-based counseling.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single (Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Prevention
Keywords: Smoking cessation counselling; Medical Student education; India