Implementation of an evidence based smoking cessation strategy (SMOCC) for patients with COPD in primary care.

COPD is an increasing cause of death and morbidity and smoking is its primary cause. Professional smoking cessation treatment is very cost-effective and therefore recommended by national guidelines. A controlled study demonstrated that a smoking cessation protocol in routine primary care, specifically targeted at patients with COPD (SMOCC), doubled the quit rates. The protocol was tested under optimal trial conditions, but it is unclear if a large-scale implementation strategy is (cost-)effective. Therefore the present study investigates an large scale implementation strategy in a 2-armed community intervention trial. The research question is how (cost-)effective this implementation strategy is compared to usual implementation procedures.

The large implementation of SMOCC will be more (cost-) effective than the usually applicated basic dissemination strategies for guidelines.

Large scale implementation of a combined strategy, aimed at the complete GP practice team (education by consultant at the practice, help with detecting smoking COPD patients, supplying materials for patient education, helpdesk/website, reminders by e-mail and phone) versus usual care.