PGI pilot project on tobacco cessation to get off ground in Ambala this week

A team of health experts from PostGraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research’s (PGIMER) department of community medicine and School of Public Health will this week begin work to study tobacco cessation as part of a pilot project with the Ambala health department.

The project, “Efficacy of shared decision making for tobacco cessation at primary care level – A Randomised controlled trial”, will be funded by the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) for three years. It aims to understand and analyse the physiology and management of nicotine addiction.

Sharing details about the project, principal investigator Dr Sonu Goel, professor at Community Medicine and School of Public Health, said it would be the first time that 600 subjects/volunteers will be enrolled from those seeking treatment.

“Usually, we advise treatment and medication to an addict, without listening to them completely. But for this project, the patient will be asked for the treatment after his counselling on different levels using pamphlets, flip charts etc explaining effects and side effects of all. We will provide options for nicotine replacement therapy like gums, patches and drugs based on the level of addiction for the patient to choose,” he told HT.

Three sites in the district have been selected for the project, the district civil hospital in Ambala City, sub-divisional civil hospital in Ambala Cantonment and the community health centre (CHC) Shahzadpur, National Tobacco Control Programme Ambala district consultant Dr Surbhi Jindal said.

Besides Goel the includes co-principal investigator Dr Abhishek Ghosh, assistant professor, Drug De-addiction and Treatment Centre at the department of psychiatry and a junior research fellow.

The PGIMER team provided training to doctors, counsellors, lab technicians and other staff over the past seven to eight months.

In the latest meeting chaired by civil surgeon Kuldeep Singh in February, it was discussed that the JRF will occasionally visit the study sites and a review meeting will be conducted quarterly to assess the project activities and take feedback from those receiving treatment at the centres.

Goel said the health authorities will make a recommendation to the state government to replicate the project across the state at the end of three-year Ambala pilot project.