A pre-post pilot study of a brief, web-based intervention to engage disadvantaged smokers into cessation treatment

BACKGROUND: People with low education and/or income are more likely to smoke, less likely to quit, and experience disparately poor health outcomes compared to those with education and income advantage. Cost-effective strategies are needed to inform and engage this group into effective cessation treatments. We developed a novel, web-based, motivational, decision-support system that was designed to engage disadvantaged smokers into tobacco cessation treatment. We piloted the system among smokers in a primary care safety net clinic. METHODS: Thirty-nine eligible subjects were assessed at baseline and used the decision-support system; 38 were assessed 2 months later. Chi-square or Fisher’s exact tests were used to assess whether participants who used the program were more likely to use cessation treatment than a randomly selected group of 60 clinic patients. RESULTS: Thirty-nine percent of smokers initiated cessation treatment after using the decision-support system, compared to 3 percent of the comparison group (Fisher’s exact = 21.2; p = 0.000). Over 10 percent achieved continuous abstinence over the 2-month follow-up. Users were satisfied with the program – 100 percent stated they would recommend it to a friend. CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicate that this web-based, motivational, decision-support system is feasible, satisfactory, and promising in its ability to engage smokers into cessation treatment in a primary care safety net clinic. Further evaluation research is warranted.