Telephone Counseling for Tobacco Cessation

While physician-delivered care may have the greatest impact on tobacco abstinence rates,
recent data indicate that other health care providers such as nurses and pharmacists improve
tobacco abstinence rates more than self-help and/or no intervention.5 Thus, pharmacists
continue to expand their clinical practice areas to include smoking cessation interventions.
A meta-analysis of studies involving pharmacist-delivered smoking cessation services found
quit rates at 6 to12 months follow-up ranged from 14% to16%.6 The results of this
meta-analysis demonstrate that pharmacists can successfully deliver tobacco-cessation
interventions and the evidence strongly suggests they are effective in helping increase
tobacco cessation rates. Proactive telephone counseling can be more effective at increasing
tobacco abstinence rates than self-help or no intervention.5 Telephone counseling is an
effective system to help increase tobacco abstinence rates for a variety of reasons. From the
tobacco user's standpoint, there are no transportation inconveniences and fewer scheduling
conflicts. In addition, receiving counseling in the privacy of one's own home provides
treatment access to individuals who are less willing to seek out counseling. At Kaiser
Permanente Colorado (KPCO), members with a history of CVD are enrolled in the Clinical
Pharmacy Cardiac Risk Service (CPCRS). The CPCRS is a clinical pharmacy specialist-managed,
physician-directed program which provides secondary prevention care to over 14,000 patients.
Clinical care includes evaluating and treatment of major cardiovascular risk factors,
including tobacco use, for members. Currently, CPCRS has no standard of care with regard to
addressing tobacco use. Clinical pharmacy specialists working in CPCRS deliver tobacco
cessation advice at their own discretion, through various methods. The purpose of this pilot
study is to determine whether brief, structured, telephone tobacco cessation counseling
delivered by a clinical pharmacy specialist increases the number of smoking cessation
attempts compared to usual care.

Inclusion Criteria:

Patients who meet the following criteria will be eligible for the study:

- Enrolled in CPCRS at the time of counseling (12/11-02/12),

- Current tobacco user as noted in KP HealthConnect as of the date of the routine CPCRS
evaluation and counseling. For study purposes, tobacco use includes any use of
cigarettes, pipe, cigars, snuff, and chew.

- Continuous KPCO Denver/Boulder membership during study time period

Exclusion Criteria:

- Patients who meet any of the following criteria will not be enrolled in the study:

- <18 years of age,

- Non-English speakers,

- Deceased at time of survey, and/or

- Unable to provide consent