Boosting Chinese healthcare service providers utilization of behavioural and pharmacotherapy interventions for cigarette smoking cessation by WeChat WeQuit program

IntroductionIn China, standard smoking cessation practices are rarely used by healthcare service providers (HSPs). WeChat, a popular social media app, has been widely used in China. MethodsIn this single-blind, randomized trial, undertaken in China with 8-week interventions and follow-up to 52 weeks, about 2,200 providers from different health care settings will be randomly selected to the intervention or control group. This trial will be conducted in China between June 2018 to October 2019. The intervention group will receive regular smoking cessation training program messages by the professional team to 8 weeks and follow to 52 weeks. A hard copy of the manual will be sent to each provider from the intervention group by mail after randomization. The Control group will only communicate by themselves and receive thanks messages for 8 weeks, and follow-up to 52 weeks. The trial will be carried out in two phases. The first phase is the pilot study (n=200, 8-week intervention and follow-up to 16 weeks) and the second is the main study (n=2000, 8-week intervention and follow-up to 52 weeks). The primary outcome measure will be the utilization rate of behavioural and pharmacotherapy interventions for smoking patients from 8 to 52 weeks. This trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (number NCT03556774). ConclusionsThis program will be the first evidence-based educational program in smoking cessation designed specifically for the improvement of Chinese HSPs utilization of behavioural and pharmacotherapy interventions for cigarette smoking cessation in health care settings by the WeChat WeQuit program. ImplicationsThis protocol may show that WeChat WeQuit training program will be effective in increasing the provision of effective tobacco cessation interventions by Chinese-speaking HSPs, especially therapists, to patients with cigarette smoking, which will provide valuable insights into bridging the gap between need and services for smoking cessation in China. Overall, we believe this program will be likely to have very substantial public health benefits if it would provide a widely accessible and efficacious smoking cessation information for Chinese HSPs.