Reducing Tobacco Use Disparities Among Low-Income Adults

January 13, 2022 updated by: Brian Hitsman, Northwestern University

Reducing Tobacco Use Disparities Among Adults In Safety Net Community Health Centers

Most smokers, especially those who are poor, do not receive smoking cessation treatment during their healthcare visits. This study is evaluating a novel population health management intervention for low-income smokers. Automated via an EHR system, which is bidirectionally linked with the Illinois Tobacco Quitline, the intervention comprises a mailed letter and text messaging designed to motivate low-income patients, most of whom are not ready to quit, to accept and use proactive quitline treatment. Increased access to free effective treatment via the integration of healthcare systems and state quitline services may be especially significant in its impact on low-income smokers who are underserved and who carry a much greater burden of tobacco-related disease.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

An estimated 26 million smokers still receive no treatment for their smoking during their primary care visits. Given the persistent clinical system, provider, and patient barriers to addressing smoking in primary care, especially for poor populations, an electronic health record (EHR)-automated population health management approach that directly links the healthcare system with public health services to engage all smokers may increase access to effective treatment. Increased access is especially significant for low-income smokers who are underserved and who carry a disproportionate burden of tobacco-related disease. While 90% of smokers are not ready to quit, many are interested in cutting down, and smoking reduction increases the likelihood of future quit attempts and smoking cessation. Based on self-determination theory, population outreach targeted to low-income smokers that offers them the choice to either quit or cut down as a first step towards cessation may increase their engagement in and utilization of smoking cessation treatment and likelihood of achieving abstinence. This 2-group randomized controlled trial will evaluate the effectiveness of a population health management intervention for smoking cessation in low-income smokers. Participants will be 530 diverse, low-income smokers of a large Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in Chicago identified using its EHR system. Automated via the EHR system, participants will be mailed a letter on behalf of their providers that encourages smoking cessation or smoking reduction as a first step to quitting (Choose to Change; N=265). The letter will be paired with 5 text messages 2-3 days apart that are designed to reinforce the central messaging of the letter ("Choose to change and make your own goal"). All components of the Choose to Change intervention will be offered in English and Spanish. Two weeks after letter mailing and automated electronic referral, participants will receive a call from the Illinois Tobacco Quitline and offered free behavioral counseling and free nicotine replacement therapy (NRT; patch, gum, or lozenge) for smoking cessation or reduction. Treatment will continue as either accepted or initiated by participants for 28 weeks. Treatment outcomes will be transmitted directly from the Quitline server to the EHR system. Choose to Change will be compared with Enhanced Usual Care (N=265), in which an electronic referral for proactive Quitline treatment is made during a clinic visit. The primary study outcomes will be treatment engagement (initial counseling call completed) at 6 weeks, utilization (one or more additional counseling calls completed) at 14 weeks, and smoking cessation (bioverified 7-day point-prevalence abstinence) at 28 weeks. An exploratory aim is to examine moderators of intervention effects. An EHR-automated population health management intervention targeted to low-income smokers could reduce critical disparities in treatment access, utilization, and cessation. If determined to be effective, the Choose to Change intervention could be readily disseminated to 11 other FQHCs in Chicago, comprising 85 clinical sites that care for almost 500,000 low-income patients.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

190

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Illinois
      • Chicago, Illinois, United States, 60611
        • Northwestern University Feingberg School of Medicine, Dept. of Preventive Medicine

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion criteria

  1. Men and women who are 18 years of age or older
  2. A patient who receives healthcare at one of the seven Near North Health Service Corporation community health centers in Chicago
  3. Daily or weekly cigarette smoker
  4. One or more healthcare visits within the past 12 months

Exclusion criteria

  1. Language preference other than English or Spanish for their healthcare
  2. No telephone number or address listed in the EHR system
  3. Lives with another patient who is already enrolled in the study

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Population health management
Population health management for smoking cessation in low-income smokers: the Choose to Change intervention
Behavioral: Choose to Change
Population-based letter outreach automated via the electronic health record system and text messaging targeted to low-income smokers. Paired with automated electronic referral for proactive quitline treatment (behavioral counseling plus nicotine replacement therapy).
Active Comparator: Enhanced usual care
Usual clinic-based care enhanced by an EHR system that can deliver an electronic referral for quitline treatment
Behavioral: Enhanced usual care
Enhanced usual care based on Ask, Advise and Refer in which an electronic referral for proactive quitline treatment (behavioral counseling plus nicotine replacement therapy) is made during a clinic visit.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Quitline Treatment Engagement
Time Frame: Week 6
The number of participants who accepted the quitline call and accepted treatment as defined by enrolling in treatment and completing the first counseling session. Participants who returned a quitline call, enrolled in treatment, and completed the first counseling session were also counted as having engaged in treatment.
Week 6
Quitline Treatment Utilization
Time Frame: Week 14
The number of participants who completed one or more additional quitline counseling calls.
Week 14
Smoking Cessation at Week 28 (32 Weeks After Enrollment)
Time Frame: Week 28
Self-reported seven-day point-prevalence abstinence at week 28. Number of participants who reporting smoking cessation at week 28. Participants were classified as abstinent if they reported not smoking (not even a puff of a cigarette) for at least 7 days prior to the assessment.
Week 28

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Smoking Cessation at Week 14 (18 Weeks After Enrollment)
Time Frame: Week 14
Self-reported seven-day point-prevalence abstinence at week 14. Participants were classified as abstinent if they reported not smoking (not even a puff of a cigarette) for at least 7 days prior to the assessment.
Week 14

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Northwestern University

Collaborators

University of Illinois at Chicago
Northeastern Illinois University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Brian Hitsman, PhD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

April 21, 2017

Primary Completion (Actual)

August 31, 2018

Study Completion (Actual)

August 31, 2018

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 1, 2017

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 7, 2017

First Posted (Actual)

March 13, 2017

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

January 21, 2022

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 13, 2022

Last Verified

January 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 5U54CA203000 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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