Personalized Risk Could Increase Effectiveness of Smoking Cessation Programs

Providing smokers with a personalized risk letter was associated with increased attendance at introductory meetings for smoking cessation services, according to a new study.

The study included 4383 participants, 16 years or older, who were currently smoking but interested in quitting, and had not attend a National Health Service Stop Smoking Services meeting in the past 12 months.
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The National Health Service Stop Smoking Services (SSS) in England offers assistance to smokers motivated to quit, but attendance rates are low and have continued to decrease in recent years. The aim of the study was to boost attendance by assessing the effectiveness of 2 methods of communication to help motivated smokers quit: a personalized risk letter or a generic advertisement for the local SSS group.

Researchers randomly assigned 2636 participants to receive a personalized risk letter and a no-commitment introductory session invitation, and 1748 were assigned to the control group and received a generic letter advertising the local SSS group. Randomization was generated by a computer and stratified by sex. A research assistant generated the personal letter, but the rest of the research team, SSS advisers, practice staff, and general practitioners were unaware of the group allocations.

The study measured attendance of first session of an SSS course within 6 months after participants were assigned to their groups.

Their findings showed that participants invited to an introductory course and received a personalized risk letter had significantly higher attendance than participants in the control group. Overall, 458 participants in the former group attended a SSS session within the first 6 months after receiving the personalized letter, and 158 participants in the control group attended an SSS session after receiving a generic advertisement.

“Delivery of personalized risk information alongside an invitation to an introductory session more than doubled the odds of attending the SSS compared with a standard generic invitation to contact the service. This result suggests that a more proactive approach, combined with an opportunity to experience local services, can reduce patient barriers to receiving treatment and has high potential to increase uptake,” the researchers concluded.

—Melissa Weiss

Reference:

Gilbert H, Sutton S, Morris R, et al. Effectiveness of personalised risk information and taster sessions to increase the uptake of smoking cessation services (Start2quit): a randomised controlled trial [published online January 24, 2017]. Lancet. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(16)32379-0.