Cigarette smoking and complications from cigarette smoking disproportionately affect people living in rural communities. Previous strategies to promote smoking cessation have largely been urban-based, involved short term interventions, enrolled smokers already motivated to quit, and been poorly integrated into primary care practice. Nicotine addiction may be better conceptualized as a chronic illness that might be most effectively addressed using newer models of chronic disease management. A disease management approach to smoking cessation would provide support for multiple quit attempts, treat smokers of all stages of readiness to quit, and coordinate cessation efforts with primary health care providers. The primary aim of this study is to assess the effectiveness of both high and low intensity, disease management programs for nicotine dependence. In this study, we will recruit 750 smokers from 20 rural, primary care clinics in Kansas. Subjects will be randomly assigned to one of three study arms, each providing 20 months of treatment: C (comparison group), LDM (low-intensity disease management) or HDM (high-intensity disease management). Participant's in-group C will receive health educational mailings and an offer for free nicotine replacement therapy (six weeks) or bupropion (seven weeks) every 6 months (months 0, 6, 12, and 18). Participants in LDM will receive the same interventions as C plus a low-intensity disease management program that includes a single telephone counseling session using motivational interviewing (MI)at months 0, 6, 12, and 18 to encourage a cessation attempt and also includes coordination of smoking assessments and pharmacotherapy with the patient's physician. HDM participants will receive C plus a high intensity disease management program that includes up to six telephone-based MI counseling sessions at months 0, 6, 12, and 18 to encourage a smoking cessation attempt and to prevent relapse after a quit attempt, as well as coordination of smoking assessments, quit attempts, and pharmacotherapy with the patient's physician. The primary outcome of the study is 7-day point prevalence abstinence from cigarettes at 2 years after enrollment. Secondary outcomes include: 1) number of quit attempts and 2) progress in stage of change. If successful, this intervention will provide a generalizable model for addressing nicotine dependence that could improve long-term management of smoking in primary care.
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