Improving Health Behaviors Through Telephone Linked Care

Summary

The investigators propose to conduct a randomized controlled trial at the patient level of the Telephone Linked Care - Behavioral Change (TLC-BC) system, which is designed to promote smoking cessation, reduce risky drinking, and improve physical activity and diet. They expect to:

1. successfully integrate an automated telephone behavior change intervention into primary care practices;
2. demonstrate improvement in health behaviors for individuals randomized (assigned by systematic chance) to use the TLC-BC system compared to individuals who receive written health education informational packets; and
3. evaluate the direct costs associated with the use and operation of the TLC-BC system.

Project aims and hypotheses follow:

Aim 1: Integrate a proven, totally automated computer telephone intervention, Telephone Linked Care - Behavior Change (TLC-BC), into primary care practices. This will be assessed by the patient and clinician/staff surveys at the end of data collection.

Aim 2: Demonstrate an improvement in health behaviors for individuals randomized to use the TLC-BC system compared to individuals who receive written informational packets.

Aim 3: Evaluate the direct costs associated with the use and operation of the TLC-BC system within the primary care setting.

Hypothesis 1: The Telephone Linked Care - Behavioral Change system will be successfully implemented by patients and practices.

Hypothesis 2: At 6 months a clinically significant improvement in behavioral change rates will be demonstrated for diet, physical activity, and smoking in the intervention group compared to patients in the control group.

Hypothesis 3: At baseline, 3, 6, and 9 months risky drinking will be identified, but there will be no difference in improvement between the study groups.

Conditions

• Diet
• Physical Activity
• Smoking
• Alcohol Abuse

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Telephone Linked Care - Behavior Change Counseling System

BEHAVIORAL

Telephone-linked behavioral counseling

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

  collaborator OTHER

• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)

  collaborator FED

• American Academy of Family Physicians

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Wilson D Pace, MD, FAAFP · American Academy of Family Physicians National Research Network

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

FACTORIAL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2006-04-30

Completion

2007-06-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations