title: Changes in success rates of smoking cessation treatment associated with take up of a national evidencebased training programme.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The English 'stop smoking services' provide behavioural support to some 700,000 smokers annually. Success rates of the services varied considerably before 2010 and had been in slight decline so, to improve performance, a national programme of evidence-based practitioner training was developed to improve knowledge and skills-based competences. This study evaluated whether uptake of the training was associated with improvements in success rates of services.
  
  
  METHODS
  Mean 4-week biochemically verified abstinence rates were compared for 146 (of 151) stop smoking services between 2008-10 (before roll-out of training) and 2011-13 (after roll-out), and the change in success rates for each service was regressed on to the number of practitioners per service trained in a) knowledge (online) and b) skills (face-to-face).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Success rate across all services improved between the two periods (34.1% to 36.5%, p=0.01 1-tailed; 95% CI for difference 0.44-4.48). The magnitude of improvement for each service was associated with the number of practitioners who completed the knowledge and skills training (beta=0.22, p=0.005 1-tailed), and marginally with the number who completed the knowledge training (beta=0.14, p=0.047 1-tailed).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  English stop smoking services that have greater uptake of a national evidence-based training programme showed greater improvements in success rates.
authors.affiliation: UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, Addictions, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, UK. Electronic address: Leonie.brose@kcl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Leonie S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Brose
authors.affiliation: Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour Research Centre, University College London, UK; National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training (NCSCT), UK.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: West
authors.affiliation: Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, UK; National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training (NCSCT), UK.
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Michie
authors.affiliation: Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour Research Centre, University College London, UK; National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training (NCSCT), UK.
authors.forename: Andy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McEwen
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004739:England; D055317:Evidence-Based Practice; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D015397:Program Evaluation; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
keywords: Effectiveness; Evidence-based practice; Preventive health services; Smoking cessation; Staff development; Training