Stages of Change training for opportunistic smoking intervention by the primary health care team. Part I: Randomised controlled trial of the effect of training on patient smoking outcomes and health professional behaviour as recalled by patients

The Stages of Change approach to smoking cessation intervention is increasingly advocated in primary care, and training in the approach is readily available. However, there has been little formal evaluation of the effectiveness of such training. A one-day Stages of Change training for primary health care teams was evaluated using both quantitative analysis of patient outcomes in a randomised controlled trial, and qualitative analysis of interviews with workshop participants. This paper reports the quantitative findings. Patients in the intervention group were more likely than controls to recall smoking having been mentioned in a consultation, but there were no significant effects of the intervention on patient smoking outcomes fourteen months after the workshops.