Drug and alcohol review
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Drug and alcohol review · Jan 2006
Review Comparative StudyThe potential of quitlines to increase smoking cessation.
Quitlines are increasingly becoming a core smoking cessation resource. This paper canvasses the potential of quitlines and briefly reviews the evidence for their utility. ⋯ Quitlines have features that uniquely place them to provide effective, accessible and affordable cessation help to large numbers and they can be modified readily to meet the needs of groups with special needs, including the capacity to act as part of co-ordinated care with face-to-face services. Quitlines are likely to become an even more important part of tobacco control infrastructure over the next few years.
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Drug and alcohol review · Jan 2006
A web-based smoking cessation and prevention curriculum for medical students: why, how, what, and what next.
This paper summarises some major developments in medical education relating to the health risks of tobacco and to training in tobacco cessation and prevention strategies, and discusses some of the barriers to training. We also describe a project whose purpose was to design, implement and evaluate a web-based self-study tobacco curriculum for medical students to teach medical students to assist smokers to quit and to counsel non-smoking adolescents not to start smoking. This curriculum addresses some of the barriers, namely lack of curriculum time, lack of access to materials and experts, and relevance of the materials. ⋯ The amount of exposure (measured only at Morehouse) was not related to overall change in scores but was associated with self-reported improvement in skill in assisting patients to quit smoking, confidence in counselling patients not interested in quitting, and confidence in counselling teens. The web-based curriculum successfully improved the students' self-rated counselling skills. Given the need and desire on the part of practitioners for training, the curriculum may be found useful by practising physicians and other health-care professionals who wish to improve their skills in smoking prevention and cessation.
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Drug and alcohol review · Jan 2006
Review Comparative StudyThe internet and the industrial revolution in smoking cessation counselling.
The internet can provide wide access to online smoking cessation programmes developed by highly qualified professionals. Compared with one-to-one counselling in smoking cessation clinics or on telephone quitlines, the mass-level dissemination of automatised, individualised counselling on the internet is comparable to the industrial revolution, when skilled craftsmen working in small shops were replaced by huge plants. Hundreds of websites provide information and advice on smoking cessation, but very few of them have been evaluated scientifically. ⋯ The internet is being used increasingly by tobacco companies to promote their products. The overall effect of internet smoking cessation programs on smoking prevalence is unknown. Greater efforts should be expended to improve the reach and efficacy of smoking cessation websites.