Smoking Cessation for Fathers of Sick Children

NCT ID: NCT07014124

Last Updated: 2025-06-10

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

Get a concise snapshot of the trial, including recruitment status, study phase, enrollment targets, and key timeline milestones.

Recruitment Status

RECRUITING

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

160 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2025-03-18

Study Completion Date

2026-04-01

Brief Summary

Review the sponsor-provided synopsis that highlights what the study is about and why it is being conducted.

The project aims to develop and examine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of a proactive intervention model combined brief advice, nicotine replacement therapy sampling and mHealth-based individual counselling in increasing smoking abstinence for fathers of sick children.

Detailed Description

Dive into the extended narrative that explains the scientific background, objectives, and procedures in greater depth.

Targeted participants are fathers of sick children who smoke daily in the past 7 days and live together with their children. The primary caregiver will be selected if both parents smoke. Participants will be recruited from pediatric wards/outpatient departments of Queen Mary Hospital (QMH), a major acute hospital in Hong Kong. The recruitment will be extended to other public hospitals if needed.

This study will be a two-arm, parallel pilot randomized trial with follow-ups at 1-, 3-, and 6-month since enrolment using standard methodology (CONSORT) to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. Surveys will be collected via telephone and children's saliva will be collected face-to-face at 3-months and 6-months after randomisation using Alere iScreen OFD saliva cotinine test device. Semi-structured individual telephone or face-to-face in-depth interviews will be conducted with the participants in the intervention group at 6 months follow-up to explore the participants' perception towards the intervention.

This study's clinical outcome will be biochemically validated abstinence at 3 months after randomisation. Secondary outcomes include validated abstinence at 6 months after randomisation, self-reported 7-day point prevalence abstinence (PPA), 24-hour quit attempts, and smoking reduction by at least 50% at 3 and 6 months. Incentives of HK$200 will be given to participants who report 7-day PPA at 1 month post randomisation. Additionally, incentives of HK$ 500 will be provided for the completion of each biochemical validation (a total $1000 for validation at 3- and 6-month). Such an amount can increase the response rate in our experience. Another incentive of $200 will be given to subjects completing qualitative interviews.

Conditions

See the medical conditions and disease areas that this research is targeting or investigating.

Cigarette Smoking mHealth Intervention

Study Design

Understand how the trial is structured, including allocation methods, masking strategies, primary purpose, and other design elements.

Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Primary Study Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Blinding Strategy

SINGLE

Outcome Assessors

Study Groups

Review each arm or cohort in the study, along with the interventions and objectives associated with them.

Intervention group

A 1-week free sample of NRT patch or gum will be provided to encourage quit attempt without the pressure of quitting successfully. mHealth messages will be provided to motivate and support quitting and improve the protection measured of SHS exposure for children throughout the intervention period of 3 months.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) Sampling

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Participants will be advised to choose the NRT according to their preferences and daily cigarette consumption. Cigarette consumption of ≤20 daily will receive the 14mg patch or 2mg gum and participants consume \>20 cigarettes daily will receive the 21mg patch. An NRT use card (Appendix 6 draft) containing the instructions and potential side effects were given with a brief oral explanation. Full course of pharmacological treatment for 12-week are available in smoking cessation services. Participants requesting for additional or full course of NRT will be actively refer to the respective services as part of the Referral step in the AWARD model (Ask, Warn, Advise, Refer, and Do-it-again).

mHealth-based motivational counselling

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

The mHealth intervention will be delivered via the most popular instant messaging app in Hong Kong (WhatsApp). A total of 24 messages with contents including the harms of smoking and smoke exposure for children, encouragement, benefits of quitting for children, methods of quitting, dealing with craving, and measures to reduce cigarette smoke exposure at home will be provided. The messages will be scheduled in a tapering schedule that participants will receive 5 messages in the first week, then cut down to 3 messages/week for the next 4 weeks and 1 message/week for the last 7 weeks. Using a more personalized approach, the messages will be tailored to the participants' motivation, intention to quit and other quitting patterns collected at baseline. Real-time conversations could be initiated by participants themselves, triggered by regular messages, or through prompt inquires (e.g., asking about the quitting progress).

Brief cessation advice and self-help material

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

At baseline, participants will receive brief face-to-face advice on quitting smoking for the health of the children using the validated AWARD model (Ask, Warn, Advise, Refer, Do-it-again) with a print-based self-help material providing detailed information on health hazards of SHS exposure on children, methods to deal with craving and withdrawal symptoms, and measures on preventing SHS exposure for children at home.

Control group

Participants in the control group will only receive brief advice on SHS protective measures. Self-help materials will also be provided without follow-up interventions.

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Brief cessation advice and self-help material

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

At baseline, participants will receive brief face-to-face advice on quitting smoking for the health of the children using the validated AWARD model (Ask, Warn, Advise, Refer, Do-it-again) with a print-based self-help material providing detailed information on health hazards of SHS exposure on children, methods to deal with craving and withdrawal symptoms, and measures on preventing SHS exposure for children at home.

Interventions

Learn about the drugs, procedures, or behavioral strategies being tested and how they are applied within this trial.

Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) Sampling

Participants will be advised to choose the NRT according to their preferences and daily cigarette consumption. Cigarette consumption of ≤20 daily will receive the 14mg patch or 2mg gum and participants consume \>20 cigarettes daily will receive the 21mg patch. An NRT use card (Appendix 6 draft) containing the instructions and potential side effects were given with a brief oral explanation. Full course of pharmacological treatment for 12-week are available in smoking cessation services. Participants requesting for additional or full course of NRT will be actively refer to the respective services as part of the Referral step in the AWARD model (Ask, Warn, Advise, Refer, and Do-it-again).

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

mHealth-based motivational counselling

The mHealth intervention will be delivered via the most popular instant messaging app in Hong Kong (WhatsApp). A total of 24 messages with contents including the harms of smoking and smoke exposure for children, encouragement, benefits of quitting for children, methods of quitting, dealing with craving, and measures to reduce cigarette smoke exposure at home will be provided. The messages will be scheduled in a tapering schedule that participants will receive 5 messages in the first week, then cut down to 3 messages/week for the next 4 weeks and 1 message/week for the last 7 weeks. Using a more personalized approach, the messages will be tailored to the participants' motivation, intention to quit and other quitting patterns collected at baseline. Real-time conversations could be initiated by participants themselves, triggered by regular messages, or through prompt inquires (e.g., asking about the quitting progress).

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Brief cessation advice and self-help material

At baseline, participants will receive brief face-to-face advice on quitting smoking for the health of the children using the validated AWARD model (Ask, Warn, Advise, Refer, Do-it-again) with a print-based self-help material providing detailed information on health hazards of SHS exposure on children, methods to deal with craving and withdrawal symptoms, and measures on preventing SHS exposure for children at home.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Check the participation requirements, including inclusion and exclusion rules, age limits, and whether healthy volunteers are accepted.

Inclusion Criteria

* Parents (mainly fathers) aged ≥18 years and smoke at least one cigarette (including alternative tobacco products) daily in the past seven days
* Living with a child aged \<18 years who attended the clinic or were admitted to the pediatric ward
* Hong Kong residents able to read and communicate in Cantonese or Putonghua
* Children aged \<18 years who attended the clinic or were admitted to the pediatric ward
* Lives with at least one or more parents who smoke at least one cigarette (including alternative tobacco products) daily in the past seven days
* Able to provide biochemical samples (e.g. saliva) for purpose of research

Exclusion Criteria

* Smokers having a history of psychiatric/psychological disease or currently on regular psychotropic medications
* Children who already have serious health diseases (e.g.chronic disease, genetic disease)
* Children who are participating in other clinical trials that may affect the results of this study
* Children who live in certain environments, such as those living in highly contaminated areas or areas with other potential disease-causing factors
Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Eligible Sex

MALE

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Sponsors

Meet the organizations funding or collaborating on the study and learn about their roles.

The University of Hong Kong

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

Identify the individual or organization who holds primary responsibility for the study information submitted to regulators.

Responsibility Role SPONSOR

Locations

Explore where the study is taking place and check the recruitment status at each participating site.

School of Nursing, The University of Hong Kong

Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong

Site Status RECRUITING

Countries

Review the countries where the study has at least one active or historical site.

Hong Kong

Central Contacts

Reach out to these primary contacts for questions about participation or study logistics.

Shengzhi Zhao, PhD

Role: CONTACT

+852 6561 4500

Mengyao Li, MPhil

Role: CONTACT

+852 6851 8462

Facility Contacts

Find local site contact details for specific facilities participating in the trial.

Shengzhi Zhao, PhD

Role: primary

+852 6561 4500

Mengyao Lee, MPhil

Role: backup

+852 6851 8462

Other Identifiers

Review additional registry numbers or institutional identifiers associated with this trial.

Sick Children

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

More Related Trials

Additional clinical trials that may be relevant based on similarity analysis.

Smoking Cessation Program for the Older Smokers
NCT06234475 ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING NA