Does Enhancing Partner Support and Interaction Improve Smoking Cessation? A Meta-Analysis

Should significant others (partners) be included when addressing smoking cessation with our patients?

This study addresses a question that hasn't gotten much attention in the professional smoking cessation literature for some time. A number of studies were done in this area in the 80's to early 90's most of which used a smoking cessation group design. Overall the results were relatively equivocal, some showed significant results, many didn't. Small sample sizes were often cited as a contributing problem. The authors of the current study attempt to address this issue by using meta-analytic techniques. I applaud their undertaking and their application of rigorous methods, however, I still find their results equivocal. Using a broad definition of partner there is little to no influence. Using partner defined as married, live-in, or equivalent to married there is some positive influence but not overwhelming.

Personally, I'm not sure there will ever be an unequivocal answer to this question. After many years as a therapist as well as a smoking cessation researcher, my answer would have to be, "It depends." It depends on a number of variables some of which concern the quality of the relationship of the two people involved. Not all spousal support is equal so it seems unreasonable to treat it as a yes/no dichotomous variable in our research.

Finally, I'm not sure how applicable this information is for physicians. The authors' suggest that interventions to enhance partner support for patients involved in smoking cessation would be useful for clinicians. This seems unrealistic to me. Prior studies by our group suggest that physicians already perceive many barriers to spending much time counseling patients in smoking cessation. Asking them to spend additional time inviting the spouse or partner's participation and support seems like setting a standard that is destined to fail.

Competing interests:   None declared