A second look at the effects of supportive follow-up on smoking cessation.
In 1982 a report in CMAJ (1982; 126: 127-129) indicated that the addition of supportive follow-up appointments in a family practice increased the 6-month cigarette abstinence rate from 12% to 23%. We reanalysed the data by means of recognized standards for treatment success and found little evidence that the treatment had any reliable effect on attempts to quit that lasted at least 3 months: 8.5% and 4.8% of the groups with and without supportive follow-up respectively abstained for more than 3 months. We discuss a problem of the experimental design (longer evaluative follow-up for the control group than for the treatment group) and cost-benefit issues.
D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D005194:Family Practice / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D009819:Office Visits; D009864:Ontario; D012107:Research Design; D012907:Smoking / Q000628:therapy*; D013223:Statistics as Topic