Adoption, reach and effectiveness of computer-based, practitioner delivered and combined smoking interventions in general medical practices: a three-arm cluster randomized trial.

Background: Brief advice for smoking patients has not been sufficiently integrated in routine care. Computer-based interventions emerged as a time saving option that might help to exhaust the potential population impact of the general practice setting.

Method: 151 practices were randomly assigned to one of three intervention programs consisting in the delivery of: (1) brief advice by the practitioner; (2) individually tailored computer-generated letters; or (3) a combination of both interventions.