Evidence underpinning NCSCT activities

It is important that NCSCT activities are founded on the best possible evidence of need for these activities, the nature of those activities, and the effectiveness of these activities.

Academic links
The research activities of the NCSCT were originally carried out by a team of experts at University College London. This programme of work was led by Professor Susan Michie and Professor Robert West along with a team including Dr Andy McEwen, Dr Emma Beard, Dr Leonie Brose (Institute of Psychiatry) and Dr Fabiana Lorencatto (City University).

Below we list NCSCT publications and their main findings.

Advice on service provision

• The English Stop Smoking Services have had an increasing impact in helping smokers to stop in their first 10 years of operation and successfully reached disadvantaged groups. However, performance across local services has varied considerably.
  
  West R, May S, West M, Croghan E, McEwen A (2013) Performance of English stop smoking services in first 10 years: analysis of service monitoring data. British Medical Journal. 47:f4921.

• Stop smoking services may enhance success rates with disadvantaged smokers if they promote use of open groups.
  
  Hiscock R, Murray S, Brose L, McEwen A, Leonardi-Bee J, Bauld L (2013) Behavioural therapy for smoking cessation: the effectiveness of different interventions for disadvantaged and affluent smokers. Addictive Behaviours. 38(11):2787-96.

• A substantial part of commissioning of Stop Smoking Services in England appears to take place without adequate consultation of evidence-based guidelines or specification of the service to be provided. This may account for at least some of the variation in success rates.
  
  McDermott M, Thompson H, West R, Kenyon J, McEwen A (2012) Translating evidence-based guidelines into practice: A survey of practices of commissioners and managers of the English Stop Smoking Services. BMC Health Services Research. 23;12:121.

• Routine clinic data support findings from randomised controlled trials that smokers receiving stop-smoking support from specialist clinics, treatment in groups and varenicline or combination NRT are more likely to succeed than those receiving treatment in primary care, one-to-one and single NRT.
  
  Brose L, West R, McDermott M, Fidler J, Croghan E, McEwen A (2011) What makes for an effective stop-smoking service? Thorax. 66(10), 924-6.

• Most NHS Stop Smoking Services appear to provide relapse prevention interventions for clients despite there being no evidence that these are effective.
  
  Agboola SA, Coleman TJ, Leonardi-Bee JA, McEwen A, McNeill AD (2010) Provision of relapse prevention interventions in UK NHS Stop Smoking Services: a survey. BMC Health Services Research. 20:10:214.

• Telephoning smokers from GP lists is a cost-effective method of prompting quit attempts using NHS Stop-Smoking Services.
  
  McEwen A, Condliffe L, Gilbert A (2010) Promoting engagement with a Stop Smoking Service via pro-active telephone calls. Patient Education and Counselling. 80(2):277-9.

Assessment and training

• There are significant deficiencies in training and supervision of Stop Smoking Practitioners in England, more so for 'community' (for whom smoking cessation is a small part of their role) than 'specialist' practitioners.
  
  McDermot M, West R, Brose L, McEwen A (2012) Self-reported practices, attitudes and levels of training of practitioners in the English NHS Stop Smoking Services. Addictive Behaviors. 37(4):498-506.

• Whilst behaviour change techniques associated with effective smoking cessation support in pregnancy can be identified from high-quality RCTs, English Stop Smoking Services appear to use only a proportion of these.
  
  Lorencatto F, West R, Michie S (2012) Specifying evidence-based behavior change techniques to aid smoking cessation in pregnancy. Nicotine & Tobacco Research. 14(9):1019-26.

• A significant minority of Stop Smoking Practitioners and Stop Smoking Service Managers believe that NRT use for smoking reduction can be harmful to health and undermine smoking cessation.
  
  Beard E, McDermott M, McEwen A, West R (2012) Beliefs of stop smoking practitioners in England on the use of nicotine replacement therapy for smoking reduction. Nicotine and Tobacco Research. 14(6):639-47.

• It is possible to identify specific knowledge and skills required for delivery of effective behavioural support for smoking cessation. This approach can form the basis for development of assessment and training of stop smoking specialists.
  
  Michie S, Churchill S, West R (2011) Identifying evidence-based competences required to deliver behavioural support for smoking cessation. Annals of Behavioral Medicine. 41(1):59-70.

• It is possible to reliably code group-specific behaviour change techniques for smoking cessation. Fourteen such techniques are present in guideline documents of which two appear to be associated with higher short-term self-reported quit rates when included in treatment manuals of English Stop Smoking Services.
  
  West R, Evans A, Michie S (2011) Behaviour change techniques used in group-based behavioural support by the English Stop-Smoking Services and preliminary assessment of association with short-term quit outcomes. Nicotine & Tobacco Research. 13(12):1316-20.

• It is possible to develop a reliable taxonomy of behaviour change techniques used in behavioural support for smoking cessation which can provide a starting point for investigating the association between intervention content and outcome and can form a basis for determining competences required to undertake the role of stop smoking specialist.
  
  Michie S, Hyder N, Walia A, West R (2011) Development of a taxonomy of behaviour change techniques used in individual behavioural support for smoking cessation. Addictive Behaviors. 36(4):315-9.

Online knowledge training course

• Knowledge required to deliver effective stop smoking interventions is improved substantially after using the NCSCT online training programme. Practitioners with all levels of prior knowledge benefit.
  
  Brose LS, West R, Michie S, Kenyon J, McEwen A (2012) Effectiveness of an online knowledge training and assessment program for stop smoking practitioners. Nicotine and Tobacco Research. 14(7):794-800.

• The 30-minute online training on VBA appears to have produced positive changes in GPs' self-reported knowledge, self-efficacy and clinical practice in addressing tobacco use with patients.
  
  Papadakis, S, McEwen A, Walsh K (2019) E-Learning on very brief advice on smoking (VBA): Changes to knowledge, self-efficacy and clinical practice of general practitioners. Smoking in Britain. 7(9).

Two-day skills training course

• The two-day skills training course leads to a substantial increase in participants' ratings of their confidence and skills.
  
  Brose LS, West R, Michie S, McEwen A (2012) Evaluation of face-to-face courses in behavioural support for Stop Smoking Practitioners. Journal of Smoking Cessation. 7(1):25-30.

Online training course for GPs in delivery of Very Brief Advice on Smoking

• Offer of help with stopping by a GP appears to be more effective than advice to stop in promoting smoking cessation.
  
  Aveyard P, Begh R, Parsons A, West R (2012) Brief opportunistic smoking cessation interventions: a systematic review and meta-analysis to compare advice to quit and offer of assistance. Addiction. 107(6):1066-73.