Smoking Cessation for people with COPD – new systematic review and meta-analysis published

PhD student Kiera Bartlett and supervisors Professor Mark Hawley (RAT group) and Professor Paschal Sheeran (Department of Psychology) have published a systematic review and meta-analysis exploring effective behaviour change techniques for smoking cessation in people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).

It has been published Open Access by the British Journal of Health Psychology and the early view is available now at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)2044-8287/earlyview

Stopping smoking is known to slow the decline in lung function associated with COPD, so it is really important for people with the condition. Previous researchers have tried different approaches to encouraging smoking cessation in this population. This review explores these previous studies in terms of the behaviour change techniques they use; these are the ‘active components’ of the intervention, things like prompting self-recording or facilitating action planning. The authors then use meta-analysis to identify the behaviour change techniques that are associated with the most effective approaches. Hopefully, the findings can be used to help design effective smoking cessation interventions, tailored for people with COPD.