Effectiveness of a one-day training seminar on smoking cessation on health care professionals knowledge

Background: Lack of knowledge of evidence-based treatments in smoking cessation is a known barrier in delivering smoking cessation interventions. Aims and Objectives: Our program aimed to evaluate the change in knowledge of health care professionals following a one day training intervention dedicated to advancing evidence-based tobacco dependence treatment. Methods: A pre-post study design was used while the CME accredited educational intervention took place in Brussels in April 2016. The training intervention was tested among 44 health care professionals from 5 European Countries (Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia and Romania). The effectiveness of the seminar was evaluated by a 13-item knowledge survey. Results: Pre intervention data indicated that the health care professionals’ knowledge was limited. However, after the intervention, significant changes in participants’ knowledge was noted in 5 out of 13 domains addressed: pharmacotherapy effectiveness (Pre 2.7% vs. Post 68%, p Conclusions: The results demonstrate that a fast track smoking cessation training program is able to improve the knowledge of health professionals. Further research is needed to assess its long term impact.