Sustainability of a Parental Tobacco Control Intervention in Pediatric Practice

Objective: To determine whether an evidence-based pediatric outpatient intervention for parents who smoke persisted after initial implementation.

Methods: A cluster randomized controlled trial of 20 pediatric practices in 16 states that received either Clinical and Community Effort Against Secondhand Smoke Exposure (CEASE) intervention or usual care. The intervention provided practices with training to provide evidence-based assistance to parents who smoke. The primary outcome, assessed by the 12-month follow-up telephone survey with parents, was provision of meaningful tobacco control assistance, defined as discussing various strategies to quit smoking, discussing smoking cessation medication, or recommending the use of the state quitline after initial enrollment visit. We also assessed parental quit rates at 12 months, determined by self-report and biochemical verification.

Results: Practices' rates of providing any meaningful tobacco control assistance (55% vs 19%), discussing various strategies to quit smoking (25% vs 10%), discussing cessation medication (41% vs 11%), and recommending the use of the quitline (37% vs 9%) were all significantly higher in the intervention than in the control groups, respectively (P < .0001 for each), during the 12-month postintervention implementation. Receiving any assistance was associated with a cotinine-confirmed quitting adjusted odds ratio of 1.89 (95% confidence interval: 1.13-3.19). After controlling for demographic and behavioral factors, the adjusted odds ratio for cotinine-confirmed quitting in intervention versus control practices was 1.07 (95% confidence interval: 0.64-1.78).

Conclusions: Intervention practices had higher rates of delivering tobacco control assistance than usual care practices over the 1-year follow-up period. Parents who received any assistance were more likely to quit smoking; however, parents' likelihood of quitting smoking was not statistically different between the intervention and control groups. Maximizing parental quit rates will require more complete systems-level integration and adjunctive cessation strategies.