Evaluation of an Intensive Education Program on the Treatment of Tobacco Use Disorder for Pharmacists: a Randomized Controlled Trial

Qatar University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Smoking Cessation

Treatments: Other: Control arm; Behavioral: intensive multi-disciplinary education program on tobacco treatment for pharmacists

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; Industry

Identifiers

NCT03518476

QatarU

Details and patient eligibility

About

In Qatar, tobacco use is one of the main causes of premature deaths and preventable diseases. As per the 2013 Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS), 12.1% of adults and 20.2% of men in Qatar smoke tobacco, and 55.4% of this smoke an average of 16 cigarettes or more per day. Moreover, 15.7% of school students aged 13 to 15 years currently use some form of tobacco according to the 2013 Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS). In Qatar, tobacco-related diseases including cardiovascular diseases and cancers are highly prevalent. In an effort to reduce tobacco use, Qatar has ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and has implemented many tobacco control initiatives. In spite of these measures, tobacco use is still rising in Qatar. Pharmacists practicing in retail/community pharmacy are often the first port of call for individuals requiring health advice in general. Evidence has proven that they have a pivotal role in health promotion and disease prevention including tobacco cessation. Hence, pharmacists have excellent opportunities to reduce tobacco use in Qatar. Yet, ambulatory and community pharmacists in Qatar are not sufficiently contributing to tobacco control. Based on published data, only 21% of community pharmacists in Qatar always or most of the time ask patients about their smoking status. Furthermore, when asked about their smoking cessation training, 89% of pharmacists did not receive any kind of education or training about smoking cessation counseling in the past. In an effort to build the capacity of pharmacists in Qatar, the aim of the proposed study is to design, implement and evaluate an intensive education program on tobacco treatment for pharmacists in Qatar. The study will be a prospective randomized controlled trial comparing the effectiveness of the education program on pharmacists' tobacco cessation-related knowledge, attitudes, self-efficacy, and skills.

Enrollment: 164 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Retail/community pharmacists practicing in Qatar will be eligible for participation in the study.

Exclusion criteria

• None

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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164 participants in 2 patient groups

Intervention arm

Experimental group

Description:

Participants in the intervention group will participate in an intensive education program delivered by a multi-disciplinary group of educators, researchers, and clinicians with expertise in tobacco control and tobacco dependence treatment. The program will be delivered over 4 days (run over 2 weekends) with an average of eight contact hours per day (a total of 32 contact hours) at Qatar University.

Treatment:

Behavioral: intensive multi-disciplinary education program on tobacco treatment for pharmacists

Control arm

Active Comparator group

Description:

Non-tobacco related training or education sessions will delivered to pharmacists in the control group.

Treatment:

Other: Control arm