Oral Presentation 2025 Joint Meeting of the COSA ASM and IPOS Congress

Mixed methods exploration of factors associated with cancer care providers’ attitudes towards smoking cessation care (126005)

Melissa McEnallay 1 , Alison L Young 1 , Vaibhav Thawal 1 , Navneet Chadha 1 , Fiona Day 1 2 , Shalini K Vinod 3 4 , Emily Stone 5 6 , Michael Krasovitsky 5 6 , Elena Stefanovska 1 , Bianca Devitt 7 , Po Yee Yip 4 8 , Craig Kukard 1 9 , Abhijit Pal 4 10 , Gavin Wright 11 , Alison Hofman 12 , Heena Sareen 5 , Cassie Rubio 9 , Alexandra Smith 12 , Jennifer Donnelly 11 , Christine Paul 1
  1. University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia
  2. Medical Oncology, Calvary Mater Newcastle, Waratah, NSW, Australia
  3. Radiation Oncology, Liverpool Cancer Therapy Centre, Liverpool, NSW, Australia
  4. South West Sydney Clinical Campuses, University of New South Wales, Liverpool, NSW, Australia
  5. St Vincent's Hospital Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  6. St Vincent's Hospital , Sydney, NSW, Australia
  7. Eastern Health Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
  8. Medical Oncology, Macarthur Cancer Therapy Centre, Campbelltown Hospital, Campbelltown, NSW, Australia
  9. Central Coast Cancer Centre, Gosford Hospital, Gosford, NSW, Australia
  10. Bankstown Cancer Centre, Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital, Bankstown, NSW, Australia
  11. Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
  12. North West Cancer Centre, Tamworth Hospital, Tamworth, NSW, Australia

Objectives/purpose People with cancer who smoke should be provided with brief smoking cessation care. COSA recommendations include a brief ask-advise-act model and a collaborative approach involving all members of the care team. The aim of this study was to 1) develop and test the validity of an author-derived attitudinal scale; 2) identify and explore factors associated with perceived capability, opportunity, and motivation to provide smoking cessation care.

Sample and setting Oncology healthcare professionals from nine public oncology services in New South Wales and Victoria completed a baseline staff survey (n=177) and purposively selected key informant interviews (n=20).

Procedures A survey was developed and completed during the baseline phase of the Care to Quit trial, alongside semi-structured interviews. This cross-sectional, multi-methods study used exploratory factor analysis to test survey item validity, univariate modelling to test associations between staff characteristics and attitudinal measures and qualitative interview analysis to identify contextual factors.

 Results The proposed survey item domains of capability, opportunity & motivation were supported (Tucker Lewis Index 0.923). There was a significant difference in the total positive attitude score metric between occupation type (p= 0.032), years of practice (p= 0.006), and training received (p= <0.001). Registered nurses and allied health professionals reported less positivity regarding perceived capability, opportunity, and motivation to provide SCC, in comparison to doctors. No difference was found between doctors and nurse specialists. The interview data indicated a need for - and receptivity to – training, albeit with concerns about limitations imposed by organisational culture and resourcing.

Conclusion and clinical implicationsThe scale was shown to have construct validity. Efforts should be focused on building resourcing alongside capability, opportunity and motivation of nursing and allied health members of the oncology care team, to ensure the cancer care team is equipped to deliver smoking cessation care.