Effect of offering different levels of support and free nicotine replacement therapy via an English national telephone quitline: randomised controlled trial.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) in this randomized controlled trial publication.

To compare the effects of free nicotine replacement therapy or proactive telephone counselling in addition to standard smoking cessation support offered through a telephone quitline.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are teenagers, adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

2591 non-pregnant smokers aged 16 or more residing in England who called the quitline between February 2009 and February 2010 and agreed to set a quit date: 648 were each randomised to standard support, proactive support, or proactive support with nicotine replacement therapy, and 647 were randomised to standard support with nicotine replacement therapy.

Two interventions were offered in addition to standard support: six weeks' nicotine replacement therapy, provided free, and proactive counselling sessions (repeat telephone calls from, and interaction with, cessation advisors).

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized and parallel-group study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Groups ran in parallel: each of the participants stayed in one arm throughout.

Parallel group, 2 × 2 factorial, randomised controlled trial.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Directive Counseling, England, Financial Support, Hotlines, Outcome Assessment, Health Care, Remote Consultation and Smoking.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and parallel-group study of Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide).

Its findings take up roughly 5 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2012 (BMJ (Clinical research ed.)), a journal based in England.

More context: the Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) compound page, all human trials.