Abstract
Background and aims
Inadequate reporting of smoking cessation intervention trials is common and leads to significant challenges for researchers. The aim of this study was to tailor CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials)-SPI (Social and psychological Interventions) guidelines to improve reporting of trials of behavioural interventions to promote smoking cessation.
Method
Informed by missing data from the IC-SMOKE (Intervention and Comparison group support provided in SMOKing cEssation) systematic review project, this study used a multistage Delphi process to examine which items could be added or modified to improve the reporting of smoking cessation trials. The first stage involved an online survey of 16 international experts in smoking cessation and
trial methodology voting on the importance of items for inclusion in the updated guidelines. This was followed by a face-to-face expert consensus meeting attended by 15 of these experts, where the final inclusion and exclusion of new items and modifications were agreed upon. A 9-point Likert scale was used to establish consensus, with suggested modifications requiring agreement of 75% or more. Disagreements in the first stage were presented again at the second stage for discussion and a second round of voting. Only items which reached the threshold for agreement were included.
Results
The experts agreed on the inclusion of 10 new items and the specification of 12 existing items. This included modifications that could apply to trials more widely (e.g., the rationale for the comparator) but also modifications that were very specific to smoking cessation trials (e.g., the reporting of smoking cessation outcomes).
Conclusions
A Delphi study has developed a modified CONSORT-SPI guideline (CONSORT-SPI-SMOKE) to improve the reporting of trials of behavioural interventions to promote smoking cessation.
Inadequate reporting of smoking cessation intervention trials is common and leads to significant challenges for researchers. The aim of this study was to tailor CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials)-SPI (Social and psychological Interventions) guidelines to improve reporting of trials of behavioural interventions to promote smoking cessation.
Method
Informed by missing data from the IC-SMOKE (Intervention and Comparison group support provided in SMOKing cEssation) systematic review project, this study used a multistage Delphi process to examine which items could be added or modified to improve the reporting of smoking cessation trials. The first stage involved an online survey of 16 international experts in smoking cessation and
trial methodology voting on the importance of items for inclusion in the updated guidelines. This was followed by a face-to-face expert consensus meeting attended by 15 of these experts, where the final inclusion and exclusion of new items and modifications were agreed upon. A 9-point Likert scale was used to establish consensus, with suggested modifications requiring agreement of 75% or more. Disagreements in the first stage were presented again at the second stage for discussion and a second round of voting. Only items which reached the threshold for agreement were included.
Results
The experts agreed on the inclusion of 10 new items and the specification of 12 existing items. This included modifications that could apply to trials more widely (e.g., the rationale for the comparator) but also modifications that were very specific to smoking cessation trials (e.g., the reporting of smoking cessation outcomes).
Conclusions
A Delphi study has developed a modified CONSORT-SPI guideline (CONSORT-SPI-SMOKE) to improve the reporting of trials of behavioural interventions to promote smoking cessation.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Addiction |
| Early online date | 18 Sept 2023 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 18 Sept 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Primary funding:This work was funded by Cancer Research UK (application number C50862/A25405). The funder has no role in protocol design, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.
Keywords
- Smoking cessation
- trials
- reporting
- RCTs
- expert consensus
- interventions
Access to Document
- Swithenbank_etal_A_Tailoring_CONSORT-SPI_To_VoR
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2023 The Authors. Addiction published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society for the Study of Addiction. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/