How does real-time video counseling compare with telephone counseling for adults attempting to quit smoking?

Abstract

Current RCT evidence comparing real‐time video counseling with telephone counseling is insufficient to guide a clinical choice between the two. Very low‐certainty evidence derived from two trials with 608 participants suggests that counseling delivered by real‐time video is no more likely to lead to people quitting smoking than counseling provided over the telephone. Real‐time video counseling also made little or no difference in the number of quit attempts, intervention adherence, or therapeutic alliance or satisfaction when measured by scores. Of note, satisfaction, when measured in a recommendation‐to‐family‐or‐friend test, was greater among people receiving video counseling than in those given telephone counseling (on average, 970 vs 919 per 1000 people would recommend video counseling). Numbers of withdrawals and adverse events were not reported.