Effects of Trained Health Professionals' Behavioral Counseling Skills on Smoking Cessation Outcomes

Background There is evidence that training health professionals in behavioral counseling skills can lead to greater success in helping their smokers to quit. However, it is still unknown how counseling skills relate to counseling effects. Purpose We established a method of skills evaluation of health professionals for smoking cessation counseling based on videotaped counseling sessions with a standardized smoker, and examined the relationship between skill levels and smoking cessation outcomes. Methods Twenty-three health professionals at Japanese workplaces underwent a training program. Their counseling skills were evaluated before and after the program using a structured evaluation form-based analysis of videotaped interactions between participants and a standardized smoker. A total of 858 smokers then received individual smoking cessation counseling by the trained health professionals at an annual health checkup. These patients were followed-up through surveys after 1 year. Results On a scale from 0 to 24, Total skill scores, which ranged from 0 to 24, were significantly higher after the training than before the training (p <.001). Multiple two-level logistic regression analysis adjusted for smokers' characteristics showed that the odds ratios of skill scores after the training for point prevalence and sustained abstinence rates among smokers who received counseling were 1.21 (95% confidence interval: 1.031.42) and 1.26 (1.05-1.50), respectively. Conclusions This study demonstrates that higher behavioral counseling skills were associated with better smoking cessation outcomes. This research is of clinical importance in that it provides a tool for assessing counselling skills in a way that is demonstrably relevant to outcomes.