A two-stage randomised trial screened 600 male security service personnel at a North Indian tertiary care hospital and randomised 95 with moderate or high ASSIST tobacco risk scores to a face-to-face ASSIST-linked brief intervention or general health information. Among the 86 completing follow-up, the intervention group had lower ASSIST scores over 90 days (group-by-time effect size 0.34), with dependence differences significant at days 15 and 45 and borderline at day 90. Moderate to high risk tobacco use at screening was 23.75%.
Why it is interesting: Tests a WHO ASSIST-linked brief intervention on tobacco risk scores rather than on verified abstinence, with the effect attenuating within three months.