Enhancing Smoking Cessation in the Homeless Population

Overview

The goal of this research study is to enhance smoking cessation rates for homeless smokers. The original study design proposed to test the effects of 1) an Intensive Smoking Intervention, and 2) integrating alcohol abuse treatment with smoking cessation We will utilize a 3-group randomized design to test study hypotheses. The three study conditions are 1) Integrated Intensive Smoking plus Alcohol intervention using cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), CBT-(IS+A); 2) Intensive Smoking Intervention using CBT-(IS); or 3) Usual Care (brief smoking cessation and brief alcohol counseling both based on the United States Public Health Service's Guidelines)-(UC). Due to low enrollment because of the addition of an alcohol use screening criteria, the study was changed to a two arm study and the study time frame changed. The two study conditions are 1) Integrated Intensive Smoking plus Alcohol intervention using cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), CBT-(IS+A) and 2) Usual Care (brief smoking cessation and brief alcohol counseling both based on the United States Public Health Service's Guidelines)-(UC). The study length is reduced to 26 weeks from 52 weeks. All participants will receive 12-week treatment with nicotine patch plus nicotine gum/lozenge. Counseling will follows the protocol used in a recent study of alcohol dependent smokers and will include weekly individual sessions for 3 months followed by study data collection visits 3 months. Both study conditions will have equal number of study contacts. Study staff will make retention contacts with participants in the community during weeks that do not have study visits scheduled. Primary smoking outcome is cotinine-verified 7-day smoking abstinence at week 26 follow-up while secondary outcome is prolonged smoking abstinence at weeks 12, 16, and 26. Secondary alcohol outcome will be self-reported continuous alcohol abstinence for 90 days at week 26. Recruitment and retention will be enhanced by use of gift cards, bus passes, other non-monetary incentives, attractive intervention materials, collaboration with homeless shelters, and advice from a Community Advisory Board. Participants will be enrolled from homeless shelters and facilities in the 7-county greater Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area. Our power calculation indicates that a sample size of 215 per study condition is needed to detect proposed treatment effects.

To achieve the study goal, we have selected a 3-group randomized clinical trial (RCT) design that includes 1) Usual Care, 2) Intensive smoking cessation, and 3) Integrated Intensive Smoking and Alcohol Intervention. Due to low enrollment because of the addition of an alcohol use screening criteria, the study was changed to a two arm study and the study time frame changed. The two study conditions are 1) Integrated Intensive Smoking plus Alcohol intervention using cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), CBT-(IS+A) and 2) Usual Care (brief smoking cessation and brief alcohol counseling both based on the United States Public Health Service's Guidelines)-(UC). The study length is reduced to 26 weeks from 52 weeks. Having alcohol treatment added to the smoking intervention will enable us assess whether addressing alcohol abuse will result in improved smoking abstinence, an important scientific question that has never been studied in homeless populations. Study conditions: Both study conditions have identical number of contacts; we considered a design in which the duration of counseling in the UC will be identical to those in the IS+A condition but decided against this because it will create a usual care condition that exceeds standard practice for brief interventions. We understand that testing hypothesis 3 confounds contact time with treatment content, and hence we will not be able to determine that observed differences in outcome are due to specific treatment components. However, given the current state of knowledge about treating homeless alcohol abusing smokers, we believe it is sufficient to show that our intervention led to improved outcome in this group without knowing if the finding is due to specific intervention content. Subsequent research will be needed to disentangle various intervention components. All participants will receive 12-week treatment with nicotine patch plus nicotine gum/lozenge. Counseling will include weekly individual sessions for 3 months followed by study data collection visits for 3 months. Each participant will be randomly assigned to a condition, which will dictate their treatment. Each participant will be asked to engage in the therapy assigned to their condition, and work to quit smoking and consuming alcohol over a period of one year.