Intervention Study to Increase Smoking Cessation Rates Among Public Housing Residents

• Point prevalence smoking abstinence [ Time Frame: 7 months ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  7 and 30-day abstinence from smoking by self-report with verification by carbon monoxide breath test
  
  

• Utilization of smoking cessation resources [ Time Frame: 7 months ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  Use of SQL, smoking cessation programs at health clinics or hospitals, physician counseling
  
  

• Medication use [ Time Frame: 3 months, 7 months, 12 months ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  Use of nicotine replacement therapy and/or other smoking cessation medications
  
  

The study is a group-randomized trial in which 10 pubic housing developments (PHDs) are randomized to the experimental condition and 10 to the control condition. All smokers who enroll in the study at a particular PHD receive the same intervention. Smokers at control sites receive written materials that offer strategies for quitting and information about availability of treatment programs, as well as a one-time meeting with a Tobacco Treatment Advocate (TTA). The intervention group receives the same written materials but also has much more extensive interactions with a TTA. TTAs provide peer counseling (Peer Counseling is defined as: performance of limited counselor functions, under counselor supervision, by person of similar age,gender, race, ethnicity and/or SES of the counselee) to smokers during in- person Motivational Enhancement meetings (target range 7-9) as well as additional in person and phone contacts, as needed for each participant, over a 6-month period. TTAs receive intensive training in motivational interviewing and smoking cessation counseling deliver the intervention components (counseling activities and provision of environmental supports) in addition to encouraging utilization of smoking cessation treatment programs such as the Smokers' QuitLine (SQL) and clinic-based programs. In order to avoid the potential for contamination due to TTAs interacting with participants at both intervention and control sites, meetings with participants at control sites are conducted by special Control TTAs. Data are collected from study participants at baseline, 3 months, 7 months and 12 months, and also from the SQL and clinics.