Does individually delivered counselling help people to stop smoking


Authors' conclusions: 

Individually delivered smoking cessation counselling can assist smokers to quit.

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Main results: 

We identified 30 trials with over 7000 participants. Twenty-two trials compared individual counselling to a minimal behavioural intervention. Individual counselling was more effective than control. The relative risk (RR) for smoking cessation at long-term follow up was 1.39, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.24 to 1.57. In a subgroup of four trials where all participants received nicotine replacement therapy the point estimate of effect for counselling was smaller but just reached significance (RR 1.27; 95% CI 1.02 to 1.59). We failed to detect a greater effect of intensive counselling compared to brief counselling (5 trials, RR 0.96, 95% CI 0.74 to 1.25). None of the three other trials that compared different counselling models of similar intensity detected significant differences.