New AHRQ Review Supports Multicomponent Smoking Cessation Interventions for Pregnant or Postpartum Women

A new AHRQ research review found that across all interventions to promote smoking cessation, including advice and counseling, self-help materials, nicotine replacement therapy, antidepressants, drug cessation aids and incentives, there are not enough data to assess their effectiveness. The review, "Smoking Cessation Interventions in Pregnancy and Postpartum Care," indicated that more data also are needed to assess the effectiveness of relapse prevention for pregnant and postpartum women. Approaches that combine multiple components appear to have the best likelihood of success. According to the study, selecting which components to include is more complex and should be based on the particular considerations of a clinical setting, including patient characteristics and resource allocation. However, financial incentives demonstrated the greatest effect among components studied