Cummins 2016

Methods	Setting: hospitals, USA Recruitment: hospitalised smokers approached by Respiratory Therapists Design: 2 x 2 (nicotine patches x counselling) factorial design
Participants	1270 smokers, 320 no patches, 317 patches, 317 no counselling, 316 counselling 56.7% male, average age 50, average cigs/day 15
Interventions	2 x 2 factorial design Intervention 1: control plus NRT patches matched to cigs/day: 6 to 10 cigs/day = 6 weeks of 14 mg patches and 2 weeks of 7 mg patches. 11/+ cigs/day = 4 weeks of 21 mg patches and 2 weeks of 14 mg patches and 2 weeks of 7 mg patches Intervention 2: control plus telephone counselling: initial call: 30 to 40 minutes, with up to 8 follow‐up calls of 10‐15 minutes Intervention 3: control plus telephone counselling and patches Control: standard care: brief beside intervention < 10 minutes
Outcomes	30‐day point prevalence at 6 months Validation: Cotinine < 10 ng/mL at 6 months
Notes	No attempt to constrain participants from using other quit‐smoking services Funding: "This research was supported by a grant from the National Cancer Institute (CA159533)" Declaration of interests: "No financial disclosures were reported by the authors of this paper."
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	Computer randomisation stratified by recruitment site and cigarettes per day
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Concealment not described
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Blinding not described
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Results biochemically verified
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Low rates of attrition