Duration of Follow-Up Counselling on Smoking Cessation Outcomes

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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Smoking cessation improves mortality, even in patients with existing smoking-related morbidity. Telephone follow-up after smoking cessation counselling as been shown to be an important method to provide support to smokers and to improve quit rates, especially if three or more calls were used in addition to face-to-face counselling. While it is reasonable to assume that more counselling leads to better smoking cessation outcomes, little evidence exists over the amount of telephone follow-up counselling that is required for optimal and sustained abstinence. We aim to investigate if six-months of weekly telephone follow-up is superior to one-month of weekly telephone follow-up.

Official Title
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Smoke Free Randomized Controlled Trial

Conditions
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Smoking Cessation

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Telephone counselling from Quitline


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Current smokers among outpatients, including hospital employees, who provide informed consent for enrollment in the smoking cessation program Exclusion Criteria: Subjects who decline smoking cessation or who do not provide informed consent Subjects who are participating or will be participating in other smoking cessation programs within the next six months Subjects who are currently using smoking cessation medications Subjects who cannot be followed up for at least six months, for instance, subjects who would be resigning and going overseas within the next six months Subjects with language limitations that would impede completion of self-administered questionnaires Subjects who are difficult to communicate with over the telephone (e.g. having speech or hearing problems) Subjects with cognitive impairments that would impede counselling and follow-up Subjects with no telephone number Subjects who are too sick to receive smoking cessation counselling Subjects with limited life expectancy (e.g. metastatic cancer)
Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Treatment
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Active Comparator: Group 1<br>Participants will receive weekly proactive and live telephone counselling from Quitline (run by the Health Promotion Board) for one month | Behavioral: Telephone counselling from Quitline<br> <br> |
| Active Comparator: Group 2<br>Participants will receive weekly proactive and live telephone counselling from Quitline (run by the Health Promotion Board) for six months | Behavioral: Telephone counselling from Quitline<br> <br> |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seven-day point prevalence abstinence |  | Six months | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Average number of cigarettes smoked per day over the past seven days |  | 3, 6, 12 months |