Impact of an online training program in smoking cessation interventions in hospital workers’ from Bolivia, Guatemala and Paraguay

The Gaceta Sanitaria Journal has just published an article that evaluates the impact of an online smoking cessation training program in Latin American countries. This research shows results of The Fruitful project that was funded by Global Bridges for the period 2014-2016. The project adapted an original course designed by the Catalan Institute of Oncology (in Barcelona) to the reality of three Latin American countries (Bolivia, Guatemala and Paraguay) and evaluated its impact.

The paper reports on the pre-post evaluation of the performance of the 5A’s strategy by hospital workers from the three involved organizations. Six months after the course there was an increase in the performance of each of the components of the 5A’s [Ask (6.2 to 7.6); Advise (6.3 to 7.9); Assess (5.5 to 7.2); Assist (3.1 to 6.0); and Arrange a follow up (2.2 to 5.2); all p <0.001]. Doctors, former smokers, and those from Paraguay obtained higher scores in each of the 5A’s components. In addition, the level of perception of the participants’ degree of preparedness, level of competence and, familiarity with resources increased. In summary, the online training had a positive impact in the implementation of this brief intervention.

This research demonstrates that the online education in tobacco cessation is feasible and effective to improve tobacco cessation interventions in these countries.

You can find the paper free of charge on the following link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0213911117303126.