Assessing the Effectiveness of a Pharmacist-delivered Smoking Cessation Program in the State of Qatar

Summary

Thirty seven percent of adult male population smoke cigarettes in Qatar. The Global Youth Tobacco Survey also stated that 13.4% of male school students aged 13 to 15 years in Qatar smoke cigarettes. Smoking cessation is a key to reducing smoking related diseases and deaths. Health care providers are in an ideal position to encourage smoking cessation. Pharmacists are the most accessible health care providers and are uniquely situated to initiate behavior change among patients. Many western studies have shown that pharmacists can be successful in helping patients quit smoking. Studies demonstrating the effectiveness of pharmacist delivered smoking cessation programs are lacking in Qatar. This proposal aims to test the effect of a structured smoking cessation program delivered by trained ambulatory pharmacists in Qatar. A prospective, randomized, controlled trial will be conducted at 8 ambulatory pharmacies in Qatar. Participants will be randomly assigned to receive a 4-session face-to-face structured patient-specific smoking cessation program conducted by the pharmacist or 5 to 10 minutes of unstructured brief smoking cessation advice given by the pharmacist. Both groups will be offered nicotine therapy if feasible. The primary outcome of smoking cessation will be confirmed by exhaled carbon monoxide test at 12 months. If proven to be effective, this smoking cessation program will be considered as a model that Qatar and the region can apply to decrease smoking burden.

Conditions

• Smoking Cessation

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Pharmacist delivered smoking cessation program

The first session will be time-intensive taking around 30 minutes. In this session, the study pharmacist will facilitate the participant's preparation to quit. The participant will select a quit date within the next 2-4 weeks. The pharmacist will discuss with the participant the benefits of smoking cessation and will provide him or her with tailored behavioral and lifestyle strategies. To prevent nicotine withdrawal symptoms, the participant will be offered nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) The first follow-up session will be scheduled after 1 week of the participant's quit day and will take around 20 minutes. In this session, the pharmacist will determine the participant's smoking status and assess the NRT tolerability. • If the participant fails to quit smoking, the pharmacist will carefully review the participant's experience during the attempt to quit and will work through the identified problems

OTHER

Control arm (i.e: regular care)

Participants in the control group will receive 5-10 minutes of unstructured brief smoking cessation advice by the pharmacist. In addition they will be provided with educational materials about smoking cessation and will be offered nicotine replacement therapy (NRT).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Hamad Medical Corporation

  collaborator INDUSTRY

• Qatar University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Maguy S El Hajj, PharmD · Qatar University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2013-02-28

Primary Completion

2015-12-31

Completion

2016-06-30

Countries

• Qatar

Study Locations