Cluster Randomized Trial of Knowledge Brokering to Integrate Mood and Smoking Cessation in Ontario Primary Care

Given the cost-effectiveness of smoking cessation programs, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health implemented the STOP program in 147 Family Health Teams (FHTs) treating 47,888 smokers with nicotine replacement therapy and counselling. Following the knowledge to action framework every FHT in STOP uses a web portal with an integrated decision aid, data collection, and feedback tool. Though STOP data finds lower quit rates among smokers with depression, it currently does not offer specialized clinical pathways for depressed smokers.

Both smoking and depression are major public health problems with high morbidity and mortality. Individuals with depression are almost twice as likely to be smokers, have lower long-term smoking abstinence (OR=0.81, 95% CI=0.67-0.97), and experience greater addiction severity and negative mood when quitting smoking. In the STOP Program, 38% of smokers have current or past depression; their 6-month quit rates are significantly lower than participants without depression (33% vs. 40%, p<0.001). This has led FHT-STOP practitioners to express the need for specialized clinical pathways for depressed smokers.

Self-help mood management (relaxation exercises and mood monitoring) integrated with smoking cessation treatment increases long-term quit rates by 12 to 20%. More research is needed to test the effectiveness of an integrated care pathway (ICP) for depression as part of cessation treatment. It is unclear which KT strategy would be more effective in engaging clinicians and driving behavior change. A randomized controlled trial in Public Health Units (PHUs) found no difference in health care provider behavior when prompted by a knowledge broker, emails or websites. However , similar to other studies, it showed the need to match organizational research culture to KT strategy; emails worked better in PHUs with a strong research culture, while KBs seemed more suitable in PHUs where research culture was low. Given that FHTs range anywhere from academic- to community-based research cultures, it is unclear which KT strategy will be most effective.

CAMH's existing Smoking Treatment for Ontario Patients (STOP) program works in partnership with 80% of eligible Family Health Teams (FHTs) in Ontario and has treated 47,888 smokers with free nicotine replacement and counselling since July 2011. Based on data already collected in the STOP Program, the STOP portal (an online data management and collection tool used by all STOP practitioners to complete participant enrollment and record smoking status at each visit), will flag smokers with current or past depressive symptoms. FHTs will be randomly allocated 1:1 to receive messages regarding depression and smoking exclusively via email (Group A) or via an eKB who will develop a one-on-one relationship with clinicians through frequent phone calls, web conferencing, and emails (Group B). The investigators will compare which method is more effective in changing clinician behavior by recording the number of times resources are provided to eligible patients. Investigators will also compare the smoking quit rates of patients from the two groups at 6-month follow-up and ask clinicians and patients what they liked and disliked about the program.