One-to-one counselling helped smokers quit, less so when everyone had patches.

The review

1. 01

   Who took part

   About 19,000 smokers took part in 49 trials, and almost half were recruited in hospitals. Pregnant women were left out, along with trials of children and teenagers.

2. 02

   What they did

   Each counselling session was face to face, at least 10 minutes long, with a trained counsellor. Many also had phone calls. Most trials compared counselling with brief advice, usual care or self-help materials.

3. 03

   What happened

   Without medicine, about 7 in 100 quit with brief support, and 10 to 12 in 100 with counselling. With patches for everyone, about 11 in 100 quit with brief support, and 11 to 16 in 100 with counselling. More intensive counselling helped a few more, about 12 in 100 against 9, though less certain.

What the review found

1. Helped

   In 27 trials with no medicine, one-to-one counselling helped more people quit than brief support.

   • Rule: With a coach or therapistused

   Pooled analysis of 27 studies with 11,100 people · vs people who got brief advice, usual care or self-help · the authors rated their certainty high · ⚠ mixes trials with other kinds of study

2. Helped

   Across six trials where everyone got nicotine patches, counselling added a smaller gain.

   • Rule: With a coach or therapistused

   Pooled analysis of 6 studies with 2,662 people · vs people who got patches and brief support · the authors rated their certainty moderate · ⚠ mixes trials with other kinds of study

3. Helped

   Across 11 trials, more counselling contact helped a few more people quit than less contact did.

   • Rule: With a coach or therapistused

   Pooled analysis of 11 studies with 2,920 people · vs people who got less counselling contact · the authors rated their certainty moderate · ⚠ mixes trials with other kinds of study

4. Mixed

   Across five trials with similar contact, four found no clear gap, and health education did better in one.

   Pooled analysis of 5 studies · vs other counselling approaches with the same contact · ⚠ mixes trials with other kinds of study

Source