Abstract

Background

NHS community pharmacies provide effective smoking cessation services; however, there is scope for increasing throughput and improving quit rates. This trial examines whether the Smoking Treatment Optimisation in Pharmacies (STOP) intervention can improve smoker engagement to increase service throughput, retention and quitting.

Methods

This study is a pragmatic, cluster randomised controlled trial in 60 pharmacies in England and Wales. All workers in intervention pharmacies are offered STOP training while control pharmacies provide usual care. The STOP intervention, based on behavioural and organisational theories, comprises educational sessions for staff and environmental prompts in the pharmacy. Intervention fidelity is assessed by actors visiting pharmacies posing as smokers. The primary outcome is throughput, defined as the number of smokers who join the programme, set a firm quit date and undergo at least one stop smoking treatment session, and is measured using routinely collected data. Secondary outcomes include retention and quit rates at 4 weeks and continuous abstinence at 6 months verified by salivary cotinine. Cost-effectiveness is estimated using quality-adjusted life years and the probability that the intervention is effective at different levels of willingness to pay is calculated.

Discussion

The trial will generate evidence to inform the public health smoking cessation strategy in England and Wales, and may help to shape service commissioning decisions. The STOP intervention model may help inform the undertaking of a range of health behaviour change tasks in community pharmacies.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov, ISRCTN16351033. Retrospectively registered on 21 March 2017.

Details

Title
Evaluating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the Smoking Treatment Optimisation in Pharmacies (STOP) intervention: protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial
Author
Sohanpal, Ratna 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Jumbe, Sandra 1 ; James, Wai-Yee 1 ; Steed, Liz 1 ; Yau, Tammy 2 ; Rivas, Carol 3 ; Madurasinghe, Vichithranie 1 ; Houlihan, Colin 1 ; Berdunisov, Vlad 1 ; Taylor, Matthew 4 ; Taylor, Stephanie J. C. 1 ; Griffiths, Chris 1 ; Eldridge, Sandra 1 ; Walton, Robert 1 

1  Queen Mary University of London, Centre for Primary Care and Public Health, Blizard Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, London, UK (GRID:grid.4868.2) (ISNI:0000 0001 2171 1133) 
2  California Northstate University, Elk Grove, USA (GRID:grid.492378.3) (ISNI:0000 0004 4908 1286) 
3  University College London, Institute of Education, London, UK (GRID:grid.83440.3b) (ISNI:0000000121901201) 
4  University of York, York Health Economics Consortium, York, UK (GRID:grid.5685.e) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 9668) 
Pages
337
Publication year
2019
Publication date
Dec 2019
Publisher
Springer Nature B.V.
e-ISSN
17456215
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-019-3368-6
ProQuest document ID
2795393406
Copyright
© The Author(s). 2019. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.