Rationale
Tobacco smoking during pregnancy remains a major public health concern and is associated with adverse outcomes for both pregnant women and infants. Effective interventions to support smoking cessation during pregnancy therefore continue to be a global healthcare priority.
The current Cochrane review, published in 2020, assessed the effectiveness and safety of pharmacological interventions including nicotine replacement therapy, bupropion and varenicline for promoting smoking cessation during pregnancy. The review identified limited evidence for some interventions and highlighted ongoing uncertainty regarding both effectiveness and safety. Since publication, additional studies are likely to have become available, alongside increased clinical and policy interest in the use of pharmacological smoking cessation aids during pregnancy.
This topic aligns closely with Cochrane's Scientific Strategy through its relevance to maternal health, prevention of adverse pregnancy outcomes, and reduction of health inequalities associated with tobacco use.
Call
We are looking for author teams to update this review. The existing reviewed has been assessed by Cochrane methodologists and is considered suitable for an update. A new protocol is therefore not required unless the successful team wishes to introduce substantial methodological or scope changes.
The successful team should demonstrate expertise in systematic review methods and, ideally, experience of Cochrane reviews. Given the potentially sensitive nature of treatment recommendations in pregnancy, teams should also demonstrate awareness of the challenges associated with synthesising safety outcomes and interpreting evidence where harms and benefits must be carefully balanced. Authors must adhere to Cochrane’s Conflict of Interest policy and for this review we are looking for authors who have not received any tobacco or commercial nicotine industry funding (including consulting for/expert testimony).
Four authors from the current review have indicated their interest in continuing their involvement. Their inclusion in the updated review is at the discretion of the successful author team.
Authors should be prepared to outline their proposed analytical approach, including planned comparisons, outcome measures, subgroup analyses and methods for addressing heterogeneity.
We particularly welcome applications from teams that include early career researchers and researchers based in low- and middle-income countries, recognising the importance of developing capacity and ensuring diverse perspectives in evidence synthesis.
Timeline: the team taking this on should be ready to begin work within the next quarter with the updated review submitted by Q4 2027.
What support is available?
There are no funds to pay authors to conduct these reviews. However, Cochrane can offer the following:
- Commissioning support. Working with the Commissioning Editor means expedited proposal acceptance and responses to queries throughout review production.
- Search support. For those who need it Cochrane Information Specialists can run the searches and (capacity dependent) may be able to use machine learning to reduce some of the screening burden.
- Support from Covidence. For priority intervention reviews, Cochrane can refer authors for Covidence premium support. This service involves support from an advisor within Covidence to facilitate data extraction and transfer (capacity dependent).
- Pre-submission support. If required, one of our Evidence Synthesis Development Editors can perform a pre-submission check about 4–6 weeks prior to submission. If you would like this service, you will need to request it several months before you intend on submitting and it will be provided on a first come, first serve, capacity basis.
- Cochrane Engage. Our online Engage platform can be used to find volunteers for various aspects of the work including volunteer co-authors.
Application
To apply, please send an expression of interest to the Commissioning Editor (rparker@cochrane.org) by 30th November including:
- Proposal form [.docx]
- Analysis plan:
- Full list of summary of findings table outcomes
- Comparisons
- Subgroup analyses planned
- Sensitivity analyses planned
- Short description of suitability of the author team for the proposal – 300 words max.
Panel for assessment
- Commissioning Editor
- Deputy Editor-in-Chief
- Additional editorial staff and experts from the Cochrane Collaboration as required
Producing an impactful review
This review has been commissioned because we think the topic is important and we think there is sufficient new evidence to support a meaningful synthesis. But until we run the search, we don’t know that the synthesis will be meaningful and impactful. If you run your search and discover that there isn't much evidence to synthesize, please reconnect with me and we will explore whether it is worth continuing with a full Cochrane systematic review or not. It may be that your work can be written up as a shorter piece of work for a different journal such as Cochrane Evidence Synthesis and Methods.
