Brief Intervention to Create Smoke-Free Homes Policies in Low-Income Households: North Carolina Effectiveness Trial

University of North Carolina (UNC)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Chronic Disease

Treatments: Behavioral: Educational print materials and coaching call

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT01868672

U01CA154282 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

13-1808

Details and patient eligibility

About

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 North Carolina 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.

Enrollment: 500 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Must be 18 years of age or older.
• Must speak and understand English.
• Must smoke and live with at least one other non-smoking person OR be a non-smoker who lives with a smoker(s).
• Must not have a total smoking ban in their home.

Exclusion criteria

• All participants who are not in immediate crisis will be invited to participate in the study.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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500 participants in 2 patient groups

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

Participant receives usual care.

Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

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.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Educational print materials and coaching call