Open AccessProactive outreach tobacco treatment for socioeconomically disadvantaged smokers with serious mental illness
Author(s) -
Patrick Hammett,
Harry A. Lando,
Darin J. Erickson,
Rachel Widome,
Brent C. Taylor,
David B. Nelson,
Sandra J. Japuntich,
Steven S. Fu
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of behavioral medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.213
H-Index - 94
eISSN - 1573-3521
pISSN - 0160-7715
DOI - 10.1007/s10865-019-00083-8
Subject(s) - medicine , outreach , health psychology , mental illness , smoking cessation , abstinence , psychiatry , population , intervention (counseling) , mental health , family medicine , public health , environmental health , nursing , political science , law , pathology
Smokers with serious mental illness (SMI) face individual, interpersonal, and healthcare provider barriers to cessation treatment utilization and smoking abstinence. Proactive outreach strategies are designed to address these barriers by promoting heightened contact with smokers and facilitating access to evidence-based treatments. The present study examined the effect of proactive outreach among smokers with SMI (n = 939) who were enrolled in the publicly subsidized Minnesota Health Care Programs (MHCP) and compared this effect to that observed among MHCP smokers without SMI (n = 1382). Relative to usual care, the intervention increased treatment utilization among those with SMI (52.1% vs 40.0%, p = 0.002) and without SMI (39.3% vs 25.4%, p < 0.001). The intervention also increased prolonged smoking abstinence among those with SMI (14.9% vs 9.4%, p = 0.010) and without SMI (17.7% vs 13.6%, p = 0.09). Findings suggest that implementation of proactive outreach within publicly subsidized healthcare systems may alleviate the burden of smoking in this vulnerable population. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01123967.