Effectiveness of intensive practice nurse counselling versus brief general practitioner advice, both combined with varenicline, for smoking cessation: a randomized pragmatic trial in primary care

Aims To study the effectiveness of intensive counselling by a practice nurse (PN) versus brief advice by a general practitioner (GP), each combined with pharmacotherapy, for 6 months’ tobacco abstinence (primary outcome). Secondary outcomes included 12-month abstinence, medication adherence and incremental costs per life-year gained. Design A multi-site (n = 10), two-group, parallel, pragmatic randomized controlled trial. Setting A network of primary health-care centres in the Netherlands. Participants A total of 295 adult daily smokers (mean age = 48 years; mean cigarettes/day = 19). Intervention and comparator Patients were randomized to receive individual counselling by a practice nurse (PN) (n = 149) or brief advice by a general practitioner (GP) (146). All patients received 12 weeks of open-label varenicline. Measurements The primary outcome was prolonged biochemically validated abstinence from weeks 9 to 26 after treatment initiation. Secondary outcomes included abstinence from weeks 9 to 52, good dosing adherence (> 80% days taken) and incremental costs per life-year gained. Findings Abstinence rates in the PN versus GP groups were 32.2% (n = 48) versus 39.0% [n = 57; odds ratio (OR) = 0.71; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.44–1.16] from weeks 9 to 26 and 25.5% (n = 38) versus 28.8% (n = 42; OR = 0.84, 95% CI = 0.50–1.43) from weeks 9 to 52, respectively. Values of the Bayes factor indicated that the PN and GP were equally effective. Good dosing adherence was significantly lower in the PN (45.5%, n = 56/123) than in the GP group (62.0%, n = 75/121; OR = 0.45, 95% CI = 0.26–0.77), and the incremental costs per life-year gained were –€416.10. Conclusions Among people seeking help to stop smoking from their general practice, one-off brief advice from a general practitioner appears to be as effective as several sessions of behavioural support from a practice nurse when smoking cessation medication is provided.