Proactive Outreach for Smokers in VA Mental Health

NCT ID: NCT01737281

Last Updated: 2019-03-26

Study Results

Results available

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Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

1938 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2014-07-01

Study Completion Date

2018-06-30

Brief Summary

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Veterans with a mental health diagnosis have higher a prevalence of smoking and higher rates of smoking-related morbidities compared to the general Veteran population. Smoking cessation treatment delivery in the VA typically depends on a visit from a health care provider. In this study, investigators will use information within the electronic medical record to identify all smokers with a mental health diagnosis at a VA health care facility and proactively reach out to enroll them in an intensive tobacco cessation treatment program. This approach could be generalized to other behaviors and provides a novel method to improve the health of an entire population of patients.

Detailed Description

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Background:

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States and contributes up to 24% of all VA healthcare costs. Veterans enrolled in the VA healthcare system smoke substantially more than the general population, which is particularly true among Veterans diagnosed with mental illness. Patients with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia have the highest smoking rates (69% and 58-90%, respectively) followed by those with PTSD (45-63%) and depression (31-51%). Numerous barriers exist for tobacco cessation among mental health patients, including high nicotine dependency, low rates of follow through for referrals, and limited availability of tobacco treatment tailored to their needs.

Rationale:

Most medical care providers assess tobacco use and advise smokers to quit, but they have insufficient time to follow up with treatment, leading to low long-term quit rates. Mental health providers who often meet regularly with patients report that they find tobacco cessation outside the scope of their practice and neither assess tobacco use nor refer smokers for treatment. These practice patterns have been very difficult to change even with intensive methods and across various settings and provider types. Therefore, the investigators here propose to use the electronic medical record system to identify smokers receiving mental health care and proactively reach out to engage them in treatment in line with the following aims:

Specific Aims:

1. Compare the reach and efficacy of a proactive outreach telephone-based tobacco cessation (PRO) program for patients seen in mental health to usual care (UC) advice and referral to local VA and community tobacco cessation resources.
2. Model longitudinal associations between baseline sociodemographic, medical and mental health characteristics and abstinence at 6 and 12 months in the PRO and UC conditions.

Methods:

Investigators will use the electronic medical record to identify N=6,400 patients across 4 VA healthcare facilities who have a clinical reminder code indicating current tobacco use in the past year and who have had a mental health visit in the past 6 months. Investigators will send each patient an introductory letter and baseline survey. Respondents will be randomized in a 1:1 fashion to intervention or control. Control participants will receive VA usual care. Intervention participants will receive proactive telephone counseling and cessation medications. Investigators will assess tobacco use at 6 and 12 months from enrollment. The primary outcome is cotinine-validated abstinence at the 12-month follow-up.

Conditions

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Smoking

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Primary Study Purpose

TREATMENT

Blinding Strategy

NONE

Study Groups

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Proactive outreach

Proactive outreach to deliver 7 sessions of telephone counseling and nicotine replacement therapy.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Proactive outreach

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Proactive contact (mail and phone) offering smoking cessation medications and telephone counseling.

Usual care

Usual smoking cessation care from clinical staff

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Usual care

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Usual smoking cessation care from VA clinical staff.

Interventions

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Proactive outreach

Proactive contact (mail and phone) offering smoking cessation medications and telephone counseling.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Usual care

Usual smoking cessation care from VA clinical staff.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* Current smoker (i.e., any tobacco use in past 30 days)
* Seen in VA Mental Health Clinic in prior 12 months

Exclusion Criteria

* Dementia
* Does not speak English
* Does not have a telephone and mailing address (necessary to mail out consent materials and to deliver the telephone-based intervention)
Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

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VA Office of Research and Development

FED

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Responsibility Role SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

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Scott E Sherman, MD MPH

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Manhattan Campus of the VA NY Harbor Healthcare System, New York, NY

Steven S. Fu, MD MSCE

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Minneapolis VA Health Care System, Minneapolis, MN

Locations

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James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital, Tampa, FL

Tampa, Florida, United States

Site Status

Minneapolis VA Health Care System, Minneapolis, MN

Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

Site Status

Manhattan Campus of the VA NY Harbor Healthcare System, New York, NY

New York, New York, United States

Site Status

Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, Houston, TX

Houston, Texas, United States

Site Status

Countries

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United States

References

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Rogers ES, Fu SS, Krebs P, Noorbaloochi S, Nugent SM, Rao R, Schlede C, Sherman SE. Proactive outreach for smokers using VHA mental health clinics: protocol for a patient-randomized clinical trial. BMC Public Health. 2014 Dec 17;14:1294. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-14-1294.

Reference Type RESULT
PMID: 25518878 (View on PubMed)

Hammett P, Fu SS, Lando HA, Owen G, Okuyemi KS. The association of military discharge variables with smoking status among homeless Veterans. Prev Med. 2015 Dec;81:275-80. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2015.09.007. Epub 2015 Sep 21.

Reference Type RESULT
PMID: 26400636 (View on PubMed)

Rogers ES, Fu SS, Krebs P, Noorbaloochi S, Nugent SM, Gravely A, Sherman SE. Proactive Tobacco Treatment for Smokers Using Veterans Administration Mental Health Clinics. Am J Prev Med. 2018 May;54(5):620-629. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2018.02.011. Epub 2018 Mar 15.

Reference Type RESULT
PMID: 29551324 (View on PubMed)

Japuntich SJ, Hammett PJ, Rogers ES, Fu S, Burgess DJ, El Shahawy O, Melzer AC, Noorbaloochi S, Krebs P, Sherman SE. Effectiveness of Proactive Tobacco Cessation Treatment Outreach Among Smokers With Serious Mental Illness. Nicotine Tob Res. 2020 Aug 24;22(9):1433-1438. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntaa013.

Reference Type DERIVED
PMID: 31957794 (View on PubMed)

Provided Documents

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Document Type: Study Protocol and Statistical Analysis Plan

View Document

Other Identifiers

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1I01HX000817-01A2

Identifier Type: NIH

Identifier Source: secondary_id

View Link

IIR 11-291

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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