Free nicotine patches plus proactive telephone peer support to help low-income women stop smoking

Background. This study tested the impact of free nicotine patches plus proa ctive telephone peer support to help low-income women stop smoking. Methods. A total of 214 Medicaid-eligible women smokers of childbearing age were randomized to receive free nicotine patches through the mail or free nicotine patches through the mail plus the provision of proactive support b y telephone from a woman ex-smoker for up to 3 months. Assessments were con ducted by telephone at baseline, 10 days, and 3 and 6 months after enrollme nt, Results. At the 3-month follow-up, significantly more women in the patch pl us proactive telephone support condition were abstinent (42%) compared to t he patch only condition (28%) (P = 0.03). Similarly, more women in the expe rimental condition were abstinent at both the 10-day and 3-month assessment s (32 v 19%, P = 0.02), However, differences were not found at the 6-month follow-up, suggesting that the addition of proactive telephone peer support enhanced short-term, but not long-term cessation, Conclusions. This is the first study to demonstrate a beneficial effect for the addition of proactive telephone support as an adjunct to free nicotine replacement in a low-income population. (C) 2000 American Health Foundatio n and Academic Press.