Brief Interventions to Create Smoke-Free Home Policies in Low-Income Households: Texas Effectiveness Trial

Summary

The burden of tobacco use falls disproportionately on low-income populations, through high rates of primary smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke. The remarkable progress in creating smoke-free environments in the U.S over the past two decades has left smoker's homes as one of the primary sources of exposure to secondhand smoke for both children and nonsmoking adults. Intervention research that identifies effective and practical strategies for reaching the minority of households that still allow smoking in the home has considerable potential to reduce smoke exposure, but suitable channels to reach low-income families are limited.

The proposed research will systematically test an intervention designed to create smoke-free homes in low income households among 2-1-1 callers. During this randomized control trial, researchers will disseminate and evaluate a brief smoke-free homes intervention through the established infrastructure of a Texas 2-1-1 call center. 2-1-1 is a nationally designated 3-digit telephone exchange, similar to 9-1-1 for emergencies or 4-1-1 for directory assistance, that links callers to community-based health and social services. The main hypothesis to be tested is that a higher proportion of households in the intervention group will establish and maintain a smoke-free home than in the measures-only control group.

Conditions

• Chronic Disease

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Educational print materials and coaching call

Intervention group participants receive three sets of mailed educational materials about making their home smoke-free and one coaching call.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Cancer Institute (NCI)

  collaborator NIH

• Emory University

  collaborator OTHER

• University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

  collaborator OTHER

• Washington University School of Medicine

  collaborator OTHER

• The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Patricia D Mullen, DrPH · The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston

• Maria E Fernandez, PhD · The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston

• Lara Savas, PhD · The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston

• Jo Ann A Gutierrez, MPH · The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2014-03-31

Primary Completion

2015-01-31

Completion

2015-11-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations