Behaviour therapy versus doctor's anti‐smoking advice in diabetic patients

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the efficacy of a structured behaviour therapy programme on smoking cessation in diabetic patients. DESIGN: Prospective, randomized, controlled intervention study. SETTING: University out-patient diabetes clinic. SUBJECTS: A total of 794 consecutive insulin-treated smoking diabetic patients were invited to participate in a smoking cessation programme. Eighty-nine patients agreed to participate and were randomized in two groups. INTERVENTIONS: Forty-four patients were randomized to a structured extensive behaviour therapy anti-smoking intervention and 45 patients to a control group that received a single unstructured anti-smoking advice session given by a physician. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: After 6 months, nine patients were confirmed not to be smoking (i.e. urine cotinine concentration below 20 ng ml-1, 2 [5%] in the behaviour therapy intervention group and 7 [16%] in the control group. CONCLUSIONS: In diabetic patients an extensive behaviour therapy intervention for smoking cessation is no more successful than an unstructured physician's advice.