Teaching Medical Students to Help Patients Quit Smoking: Outcomes of a 10-School Randomized Controlled Trial

Background Early in medical education, physicians must develop competencies needed for tobacco dependence treatment. Objective To assess the effect of a multi-modal tobacco dependence treatment curriculum on medical students’ counseling skills. Design A group-randomized controlled trial (2010–2014) included ten U.S. medical schools that were randomized to receive either multi-modal tobacco treatment education (MME) or traditional tobacco treatment education (TE). Setting/Participants Students from the classes of 2012 and 2014 at ten medical schools participated. Students from the class of 2012 ( N = 1345) completed objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs), and 50 % ( N = 660) were randomly selected for pre-intervention evaluation. A total of 72.9 % of eligible students ( N = 1096) from the class of 2014 completed an OSCE and 69.7 % ( N = 1047) completed pre and post surveys. Interventions The MME included a Web-based course, a role-play classroom demonstration, and a clerkship booster session. Clerkship preceptors in MME schools participated in an academic detailing module and were encouraged to be role models for third-year students. Measurements The primary outcome was student tobacco treatment skills using the 5As measured by an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) scored on a 33-item behavior checklist. Secondary outcomes were student self-reported skills for performing 5As and pharmacotherapy counseling. Results Although the difference was not statistically significant, MME students completed more tobacco counseling behaviors on the OSCE checklist (mean 8.7 [SE 0.6] vs. mean 8.0 [SE 0.6], p = 0.52) than TE students. Several of the individual Assist and Arrange items were significantly more likely to have been completed by MME students, including suggesting behavioral strategies (11.8 % vs. 4.5 %, p