ABSTRACT
Data on provider and patient compliance can be crucial in understanding the degree of a health education program's effectiveness, as well as in identifying areas where the program requires modification. However, such data are rarely systematically reported in randomized trials. This report assesses the degree to which doctors and midwives complied with intervention protocols in a hospital antenatal smoking cessation trial, and also examines the program's acceptability to patients. Provider compliance was assessed principally via consultation audiotapes and provider-completed checklists. The audiotape analysis identified substantial compliance problems. For example, in relation to six specific smoking-related pregnancy risks, the proportions of Experimental Women informed about each individual risk ranged from 26 to 38% and the proportions receiving counselling items ranged from 52 to 79%. Doctors only informed a minority of Experimental Women of the increased risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (28%) and of the presence of toxic chemicals in tobacco (21%). Comparison of compliance data from audiotapes and provider checklists revealed there was no significant agreement in three of four cases tested. Experimental Patients completed questionnaires to assess recall of smoking advice and to rate 12 program features. Of specific Experimental Program elements, the videotape (85%) received the highest level of positive patient ratings and the lottery (42%) the lowest. The process evaluation indicated that the Experimental Program needed some modification to increase its suitability for routine application. The findings also support the value of including an objective measure of provider compliance.
Subject(s)
Guideline Adherence/statistics & numerical data , Patient Education as Topic/statistics & numerical data , Prenatal Care/statistics & numerical data , Process Assessment, Health Care , Smoking Cessation , Female , Humans , Mental Recall , New South Wales , Nurse Midwives , Patient Compliance , Practice Patterns, Physicians' , Pregnancy , Prenatal Care/methods , Program Evaluation , Research Design , Smoking/adverse effectsABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: A randomized trial evaluated the impact of smoking cessation interventions on point prevalence and consecutive quit rates at an Australian public prenatal clinic. METHODS: Self-reports and urine cotinine tests confirmed patients' smoking status at the midpoint and end of pregnancy and 6 weeks postpartum. RESULTS: At all points, validated abstinence rates were significantly higher in the experimental group than in the control group. The rate of failed biochemical validation was significantly higher in the control group than in the experimental group. CONCLUSIONS: Prenatal clinic staff can significantly increase quit rates by using cognitive-behavioral strategies. Brief advice appears to be ineffective.