Short-term impact of the EuroPean Accredited Curriculum on Tobacco Treatment Training (EPACTT) program

Theodosia Peleki; Charis Girvalaki; Francisco Lozano; Cornel Radu-Loghin; Dominick Nguyen; Arusyak Harutyunyan; George Bakhturidze; Antigona Trofor; Andrey Demin; Otto Stoyka; Chrysoula Tsiou; Sophia Papadakis; Constantine I Vardavas; Panagiotis K Behrakis

doi:10.18332/tpc/92484

Short-term impact of the EuroPean Accredited Curriculum on Tobacco Treatment Training (EPACTT) program

Tob Prev Cessat. 2018 Jul 16:4:28. doi: 10.18332/tpc/92484. eCollection 2018.

Authors

Theodosia Peleki^{1

2}, Charis Girvalaki^{3

2}, Francisco Lozano², Cornel Radu-Loghin², Dominick Nguyen², Arusyak Harutyunyan⁴, George Bakhturidze⁵, Antigona Trofor⁶, Andrey Demin⁷, Otto Stoyka⁸, Chrysoula Tsiou⁹, Sophia Papadakis¹⁰, Constantine I Vardavas^{2

11}, Panagiotis K Behrakis^{12

13}

Affiliations

¹ National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Health Sciences, Department of Medicine, Athens, Greece.
² European Network for Smoking and Tobacco Prevention (ENSP), Brussels, Belgium.
³ Clinic of Social and Family Medicine, Medical School, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece.
⁴ School of Public Health, American University of Armenia, Armenia.
⁵ FCTC Implementation and Monitoring Center, Georgia.
⁶ University of Medicine and Pharmacy 'Grigore T.Popa', Iasi, Romania.
⁷ Federal State Funded Educational Institution of Higher Education I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University under the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Russia.
⁸ Kyiv City Health Center, Ukraine.
⁹ Technological Educational Institute of Athens, Greece.
¹⁰ Division of Prevention and Rehabilitation, University of Ottawa Heart Institute, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
¹¹ Institute of Public Health, American College of Greece, George D Behrakis Research Lab, Hellenic Cancer Society, Athens, Greece.
¹² Institute of Public Health, American College of Greece, Athens, Greece.
¹³ George D Behrakis Research Lab, Hellenic Cancer Society, Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens, Athens, Greece.

Abstract

Introduction: The aim of this pilot study was to assess the short-term effectiveness of the EuroPean Accredited Curriculum on Tobacco Treatment Training intervention in improving health care providers' knowledge, attitudes and self-efficacy related to tobacco dependence treatment.

Methods: A pre-post pilot study was conducted. The two-day training intervention took place in Brussels in April 2016. Health care professionals from six European countries (Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Romania and Greece) were purposively invited to participate in the study. Evaluation was performed before the intervention, immediately after, and at approximately two months following the intervention. Changes in outcomes of interest were examined before and after exposure to the intervention program.

Results: In all, 47 health care professionals participated in the training of which 40 completed the evaluation surveys. Significant increases in providers' self-efficacy and perceived behavioral control related to tobacco treatment delivery were documented immediately following the training and at the 2 months follow-up. Significant improvement in provider knowledge and attitudes were observed in some items assessed.

Conclusions: The results demonstrate that training is able to improve provider self-efficacy related to tobacco treatment delivery in this cross-national European sample of health care professionals. Additional research is required to examine the generalizability of our findings.

Keywords: attitudes; evidence-based practice; health care professionals; knowledge; smoking cessation; training.