A Qualitative Study of Factors Influencing Implementation of Tobacco Control in Pediatric Practices

Introduction: Clinical effort against secondhand smoke exposure (CEASE) is an evidence-based intervention that prepares child healthcare clinicians and staff with the knowledge, skills, and resources needed to ask family members about tobacco use, provide brief counseling and medication assistance, and refer to free cessation services.

Aim: This study sought to identify factors that influenced the implementation of CEASE in five pediatric intervention practices in five states that participated in a cluster randomized clinical trial of the CEASE intervention.

Methods: Guided by questions from the consolidated framework for implementation research (CFIR) interview guide, semistructured qualitative interviews were conducted with 11 clinicians and practice staff from five intervention practices after the practices had implemented CEASE for two years. Interviews were conducted by a trained qualitative researcher, recorded with permission, and transcribed verbatim. An interview codebook was inductively developed; two researchers used the codebook to code data. After coding, data was analyzed to identify factors, as described by the CFIR domains that influenced the implementation of CEASE.

Results: The implementation of CEASE in practices was influenced by the adaptability and complexity of the intervention, the needs of patients and their families, the resources available to practices to support the implementation of CEASE, other competing priorities at the practices, the cultures of practices, and clinicians' and office staffs' knowledge and beliefs about family-centered tobacco control.

Conclusion: Identifying and influencing certain critical factors guided by information gathered through interviews may help improve implementation and sustainability of family-centered tobacco control interventions in the future. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01882348.