Intervention study to evaluate pilot health promotion payment aimed at increasing general practitioners' antismoking advice to smokers
BMJ 2001; 323 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.323.7310.435 (Published 25 August 2001) Cite this as: BMJ 2001;323:435
- Tim Coleman, senior lecturer (tjc3@le.ac.uk)a,
- Alison T Wynn, research associatea,
- Steve Barrett, research coordinatorb,
- Andrew Wilson, senior lecturera,
- Susan Adams, research associatec
- a Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care, Leicester Warwick Medical School, Leicester General Hospital, Leicester LE5 4PW,
- b Children's Brain Tumour and Disability Research Centre, Academic Division of Child Health, School of Human Development, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2UH,
- C Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, University of Leicester, Leicester LE3 9QP
- Correspondence to: T Coleman
- Accepted 21 May 2001
See p 432
Since 1990, the UK government has tried to influence health promotion activity by general practitioners through payment schemes.1 These have never been rigorously evaluated.2 We examined the feasibility and effectiveness of a payment scheme that aimed to increase general practitioners' antismoking advice in an uncontrolled before and after study.
Participants, methods, and results
The health promotion payment was piloted in a deprived area of Leicester. The recruitment of practices is described elsewhere.3 Thirty five general practitioners (out of 62 approached) from 13 general practices (out of 28 approached) were recruited, and 31 participated in the study.
Before data collection began, we invited all members of primary healthcare teams to attend training in methods of stopping smoking. We then observed normal clinical behaviour over nine months (the control period). In the following nine months (the intervention period), practices could claim £15 from the health authority for identifying …