Veteran Social Support for Enhancing Use of Smoking Cessation Treatment

NCT ID: NCT05868421

Last Updated: 2026-01-16

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

RECRUITING

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

2376 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2024-02-01

Study Completion Date

2028-02-01

Brief Summary

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This study is recruiting Veterans who currently smoke cigarettes and support persons who are nominated by the Veterans. The purpose of this study is to assist Veterans with smoking cessation by asking Veterans to choose a support person who will assist them with the quitting process, or who may assist them with the quitting process once the Veteran is ready to quit smoking sometime in the future. Study staff will assess how much or how little social support during the Veteran's quitting process is helpful to the Veteran. This information will help us come up with new ways to help Veterans quit smoking that are better tailored to their needs.

Detailed Description

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Background: Enhancing access and use of evidence-based tobacco cessation treatments and eliminating tobacco-related health disparities are top national and VA health services priorities. The prevalence of tobacco use is greater among Veterans compared to non-Veterans. From 2010-2015, 29% of women and 21% of male Veterans reported current cigarette smoking. Evidence-based cessation treatments (EBCTs) such as, tobacco quitlines, behavioral counseling, and pharmacotherapy, are greatly underutilized by Veteran smokers. Gaps remain in reaching women Veterans and use of existing social support networks to enhance use of EBCTs and cessation among Veterans.

Specific Aims. Aim 1: To evaluate the impact of the social support intervention on Veteran smokers' use of EBCT. Aim 2: To examine the effectiveness of the social support intervention on the biochemically confirmed 7-day point prevalence cigarette smoking abstinence. Aim 3: To explore potential moderators (e.g., smoker gender, SP tobacco use status) of intervention effects on study outcomes. Aim 4: To conduct a process evaluation assessing implementation outcomes (reach, adoption, fidelity) of the social support intervention and multilevel factors that may influence implementation.

Methods: The investigators will conduct a pragmatic randomized controlled trial (RCT) within the national VHA health system to evaluate the effectiveness of a social support intervention compared with a control condition on utilization of EBCT among VHA-enrolled smokers. Veteran smokers, regardless of level of readiness to quit, will be identified nationally using the VHA electronic health record and proactively recruited. Interested smokers will be asked to identify a support person (SP) who will enroll. Participants will be randomized as smoker-SP dyads to the intervention (n= 594 dyads) or control condition (n= 594 dyads). All smokers will receive written resources and information on EBCTs. All SP participants will receive written materials. SP participants assigned to the intervention group will additionally receive a 1-call coaching session. Assessments for dyads in both study groups will be conducted at baseline, 3-, and 6-months post-randomization.

Innovation and Impact: This project is innovative for evaluating social support networks as a proactive outreach approach to enhance cessation treatment utilization among Veteran smokers. The role of social network influences and social support on successful smoking cessation is established. Based on Cohen's theory of social support, the team developed a social support intervention for diverse family members, friends, and other adults who wanted to help a smoker quit. The intervention consists of written materials and a 1-call, 15-25 minute coaching session. It is expected to be especially beneficial for Veteran smokers who might not otherwise access cessation treatment. Because the prior VHA trials enrolled about 94% men and the higher smoking rates among women, the investigators will oversample women to enroll an equal number of men and women smokers. This study contributes to VA HSR\&D's priority initiatives for enhancing treatment access and women's health and is significant because it will advance research on the role of partnering with Veterans' families and/or important others to enhance access to VA healthcare and population-specific treatments, especially women Veterans. The potential reach and public health impact of an effective social support intervention for the Veteran tobacco user population is considerable.

Implementation/Next Steps: Next steps depend on the actual results, but the investigators expect findings to be important to VA leaders, the VA Women's Health Research Consortium and the Veteran community. The investigators will maintain communication throughout the project with VA program partners to share findings in a timely manner. The investigators will collaborate with CCDOR's Veteran Engagement Panel on development of patient-centered dissemination approaches and recommendations for future intervention adaptations and/or implementation.

Conditions

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Smoking Cessation Veterans Health

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

pragmatic randomized controlled trial that will randomize Smoker-Support Person dyads with 1:1 allocation
Primary Study Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Blinding Strategy

SINGLE

Outcome Assessors
The outcomes assessors are blinded to intervention group assignment.

Study Groups

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Support Person Coaching Call and Written Materials

Support persons will receive written material resources on support strategies to stop smoking, and resources on how to stop smoking. Support person participants assigned to the intervention group will additionally receive a 1-call coaching session about 15-25 minutes in duration on how to support their Veteran smoker. The coaching session will be delivered by research staff by phone or video call. Veteran smokers will receive written smoking cessation resource and referral information for VHA and non-VHA EBCT options.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Support Person Coaching Call

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Support person participants assigned to the intervention group will additionally receive a 1-call coaching session about 15-25 minutes in duration on how to support their Veteran smoker. The session will be delivered by research staff by phone or video call. Support persons in the intervention group and the control/no intervention group will receive existing written material resources on support strategies to stop smoking, and resources on how to stop smoking by postal mail or email.

SP written materials

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Written materials covering tips on effective supportive strategies for smoking cessation

Written Smoking Cessation Materials

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Written materials on resource and referral information for VHA and non-VHA EBCT options

Written Materials Only

Support persons will receive written material resources on support strategies to stop smoking, and resources on how to stop smoking. Veteran smokers will receive written smoking cessation resource and referral information for VHA and non-VHA EBCT options.

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

SP written materials

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Written materials covering tips on effective supportive strategies for smoking cessation

Written Smoking Cessation Materials

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Written materials on resource and referral information for VHA and non-VHA EBCT options

Interventions

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Support Person Coaching Call

Support person participants assigned to the intervention group will additionally receive a 1-call coaching session about 15-25 minutes in duration on how to support their Veteran smoker. The session will be delivered by research staff by phone or video call. Support persons in the intervention group and the control/no intervention group will receive existing written material resources on support strategies to stop smoking, and resources on how to stop smoking by postal mail or email.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

SP written materials

Written materials covering tips on effective supportive strategies for smoking cessation

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Written Smoking Cessation Materials

Written materials on resource and referral information for VHA and non-VHA EBCT options

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Other Intervention Names

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SP Coaching Call Intervention Written support person strategies

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* Smoked 1 cigarettes over the past 30 days, even a puff
* If using other tobacco or nicotine products, cigarettes are the main product used
* Willing to support the Veteran smoker
* Have to have access to any type of phone (or tablet for video call) for delivery of the SP intervention

Exclusion Criteria

* Have used cessation medications or a stop smoking program within the past 3 months
* Have no valid phone contact information
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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Steven S. Fu, MD MSCE

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Minneapolis VA Health Care System, Minneapolis, MN

Locations

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Minneapolis VA Health Care System, Minneapolis, MN

Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

Site Status RECRUITING

Countries

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United States

Central Contacts

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Alicia B Woodward-Abel

Role: CONTACT

(612) 467-1229

Sarah Becker

Role: CONTACT

(612) 467-1515

Facility Contacts

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Alicia B Woodward-Abel

Role: primary

612-467-1229

Sarah Becker

Role: backup

(612) 467-1515

Other Identifiers

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IIR 20-117

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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