Purpose and Objectives:

While many physicians already inquire and suggest interventions regarding tobacco cessation, little research has been done assessing the use of the dentist and other dental professionals. The planned Columbia/Prudential Research Program has four objectives:

• To determine whether an MCO sponsored tobacco related system can be created, facilitated and maintained within the dental office
• To determine whether an office based educational intervention can increase the prevalence of cessation activities within the MCO dental practices
• To determine the effect that such intervention(s) would have on cessation rates within the target patient population
• To measure the cost-effectiveness of the proposed systems changes.

Methodology:

The research design, in the planned project, features random assignment to two intervention conditions and a service as usual condition. The interventions are: 1) "basic" intervention (identification and documentation of patients' smoking status by the dental office), coupled with dissemination of self-help and support materials to patients identified as smokers, by the MCO and, (2) "augmented" intervention - identification and documentation of patients' smoking status, coupled with dissemination of self-help and support materials to patients identified as smokers, plus education of the dental team through academic detailing, documented quit dates, along with supportive NRT. Data collection, management and analyses will proceed in logical order from simple to complex i.e., descriptive statistics early on, and multivariate regression analyses in the later stages.