Improving Quitline Support Study

This study seeks to evaluate ways to improve outcomes for low-education, uninsured or Medicaid-eligible smokers who do not successfully quit with standard telephone quit line treatment. The study will use an efficient factorial study design to evaluate four evidence-based strategies to improve follow-up care offered by the Wisconsin Tobacco Quit Line (WTQL) to socioeconomically disadvantaged callers who report smoking four months following initial WTQL treatment comprising a single counseling call and 2-week supply of a single nicotine replacement therapy. The four factors (strategies) to be studied include: (1) Quit line counseling intensity (1 vs 4 proactive calls); (2) Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) intensity (Patch for 2 weeks vs Patch+Lozenge for 4 weeks); (3) SmokefreeTXT text messages (proactive enrollment vs none); and (4) financial incentives for treatment engagement (vs none). The study design is a fully-crossed 4-factor factorial design. The primary aim is: Assessment of the main and interactive effects of the four treatment factors on biochemically-confirmed 7-day point-prevalence abstinence at the 6-month followup. Secondary aims include testing: (1) self-reported abstinence at 12 weeks post-quit; (2) continuous abstinence between 1 and 6 months; (3) cost-effectiveness; and (4) moderators of treatment engagement and mediators of treatment effectiveness on 6-month abstinence.