Comparative Effectiveness of Post-Discharge Strategies for Hospitalized Smokers

Summary

Cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the U.S. The 2008 US Public Health Service Smoking Cessation Guideline recommends offering effective treatment to smokers in all health care settings, including hospitals. Nearly 4 million smokers are hospitalized each year, and hospital admission offers a "teachable moment" for intervention. Hospital-initiated smoking cessation intervention is effective, but only if contact continues for more than 1 month after discharge. The challenge is to translate this research into clinical practice by identifying an evidence-based cost-effective model that U.S. hospitals can adopt. The major barrier is sustaining contact after discharge. This project tests an innovative strategy to streamline the delivery and maximize the uptake of post-discharge smoking interventions.

Specific Aim: To test the effectiveness of an innovative strategy to maximize smokers' use of evidence-based tobacco treatment (counseling and medication) after hospital discharge, thereby increasing the proportion of smokers who achieve long-term (6-month) tobacco abstinence.

Study Design: A multi-site randomized controlled comparative effectiveness trial will enroll 1350 adult smokers admitted to 3 acute care hospitals in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. All subjects will receive a brief in-hospital smoking intervention and be randomly assigned at discharge to either Standard Care (passive referral to their state quitline) or Extended Care, a 3-month program consisting of (1) Free Medication: A 30-day supply of FDA-approved medication (nicotine replacement, bupropion, or varenicline) given at hospital discharge and refillable for a total of 90 days to encourage medication use and adherence; (2) Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Triage to Telephone Counseling from a national quitline provider. IVR aims to encourage medication adherence and enhance counseling efficiency by identifying smokers who need post-discharge support. Immediate transfer of a patient from automated IVR call to live telephone counselor will facilitate a successful connection to counseling.

Outcomes, assessed at 1, 3, and 6 months after hospital discharge, are: (1) intervention effectiveness (cotinine-validated 7-day point-prevalence tobacco abstinence rate at 6 month follow-up \[primary outcome\] and other tobacco abstinence measures); (2) treatment utilization, and (3) cost-effectiveness (cost per quit). Exploratory analyses will examine the intervention's effect on hospital readmissions and mortality in the 6 months after discharge.

Conditions

• Cigarette Smoking
• Tobacco Smoking
• Tobacco Use Disorder

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Sustained Care

A 3-month program after hospital discharge with these 2 components: (1) Free Medication - A 30-day supply of FDA-approved medication (nicotine replacement, bupropion, or varenicline) given at hospital discharge and refillable for a total of 90 days to encourage medication use and adherence; (2) Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Triage to Telephone Counseling from a national quitline provider (Alere Wellbeing, Inc., previously Free \& Clear). IVR aims to encourage medication adherence and enhance counseling efficiency by identifying smokers who need post-discharge support. Immediate transfer of a patient from automated IVR call to live telephone counselor will facilitate a successful connection to counseling.

BEHAVIORAL

Standard Care

Standard care consists of a handout with information about how to contact the state telephone quitline for additional smoking cessation support and to use smoking cessation medication as recommended by the hospital smoking counselor.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Pittsburgh

  collaborator OTHER

• North Shore Medical Center

  collaborator OTHER

• Massachusetts General Hospital

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Nancy A Rigotti, MD · Massachusetts General Hospital

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2012-12-31

Primary Completion

2016-10-31

Completion

2016-10-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations