Smoking cessation counselling
| Control group: counselling plus basal spirometry feedback | Intervention group: counselling plus intensive spirometry feedback |
| The health professional will apply the 5A’s strategy, which includes five steps: Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist and Arrange. | |
| In a 5–10 min visit, participants will receive health education and counselling on smoking cessation. | In a 15–20 min visit, patients will receive health education and counselling on smoking cessation, and provided personalised information and explanation about the spirometry results, clearing up any doubts or concern. |
| For A2 (advice): ‘As your doctor, I recommend that you quit smoking, although the decision is yours alone. I know that it is difficult to make a decision right now, but we have a number of resources that can help you quit smoking and I know that if you decide to quit in the future you will be able to do that. Remember that you can always count on us to help.’ | For A2 (advice): ‘Tobacco is harmful to your health. Smoking can produce various diseases such as, for example, those that affect your lungs. Some smokers end up getting a chronic pulmonary disease that is commonly called chronic bronchitis. To diagnose that disease, we use a test called spirometry that measures lung capacity. This is the test I gave you. In your case, the results indicate that you do not have this disease now, but some of the data suggest that tobacco is causing some changes in your lungs. These values—FVC, FEV1, FEV 25–75—indicate that you have lost part of the capacity you had to exhale air, specifically, you have lost about……%. Tobacco also accelerates the usual ageing of the lungs. This effect can be seen in this ‘lung age’ value, which is…… years. In summary, although at this time, given your results, we would not say you are sick, looking at the rest of the data, the best thing for your health is to stop smoking as soon as possible.’ |
| At end, the patient’s willingness to quit smoking will be assessed (A3). For the patient willing to make a quit attempt will offer the possibility of a specific medical visit for behavioural and/or pharmacological treatment (A4 and A5). | |
FEV, forced expiratory volume; FVC, forced vital capacity.