| SEARCH
|
|
Does Telephone Counseling Enhance the Effects of Pharmacotherapy for
This evaluation grant looked at the use and effectiveness of proactive telephone counseling for patients prescribed pharmacotherapy for smoking cessation. The study was carried out in a managed care organization in Minnesota. The sample included equal numbers of patients with and without chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease, hyperlipidemia, chronic respiratory diseases and other arterial/vascular diseases. Members who filled a prescription for cessation medication within a 14 month time period received a letter indicating that they may be contacted concerning smoking cessation services. The intervention group received a phone call following the letter inviting them to participate in telephone counseling. Forty-nine percent were reached and invited to participate in either general counseling (unstructured counseling based on topics the member wished to discuss concerning cessation) or a telephone-based course for smoking cessation (structured counseling based on known topics that are effective for tobacco cessation). Those enrolled in counseling received a packet of materials concerning cessation and were allowed to participate in up to nine counseling sessions. Of the members reached, 31% agreed to participate. Seventy-one percent of those choose general counseling and the remaining 29% selected the telephone-based cessation course. Follow-up surveys were sent at 3 and 12 months. The response rate at 3 months was 78%. Eighty-six percent of respondents reported using the cessation medication. Self reported point prevalence quit rates at three months were 33.1% for the intervention group and 27.4% for the control group. Those in the intervention group were more likely to report using the cessation medication for more than 30 days compared to those in the control group. Quit attempts were more likely amongst those who reported having actually used the medication. There was no difference between those with and without chronic disease in quit rates. Members who were reached for counseling were more likely to quit than those not reached or not in the intervention group. Specifically, women in the intervention group who smoked more than one pack per day were more likely to quit compared to women in the control group. Males in the intervention group were not more likely to quit than those in the control group. This study showed that a proactive offer of telephone counseling is feasible to implement and can help to increase three-month quit rates. Citation: Boyle RG, Solberg LI, Asche SE, Boucher JL, Pronk NP, Jensen CJ. Offering telephone counseling to smokers using pharmacotherapy. Nicotine Tob Res 2005; 7(Suppl 1): S19-S27. Boyle RG, Solberg LI, Asche SE, Maciosek MV, Boucher JL, Pronk NP. Proactive recruitment of health plan smokers into telephone counseling. Nicotine & Tobacco Research. (In press). Solberg LI, Asche SE, Boyle RG, Boucher JL, Pronk NP. Frequency of Physician-directed assistance for smoking cessation in patients receiving cessation medications. Arch Intern Med 2005; 165:1-5. For more information, contact: Raymond Boyle, Ph.D. |
||||||||||||||||||||||
| Home | Meetings | Researcher Tools | Provider Tools | Research Findings | Literature Review | Links | Page Updated: August 13, 2008
|
Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention |
Commonly Used Acronyms |