Dr. Duffy Awarded Grant for Pilot Testing Tobacco Tactics Intervention

 

Associate Professor Dr. Sonia Duffy has received an R21 Award from the National Institutes of Health to fund a randomized control trial to pilot test her web-based Tobacco Tactics intervention program among Operating Engineers of Michigan. The effectiveness of the Tobacco Tactics intervention will be compared to the state-supported 1-800-QUIT-NOW telephone help line by evaluating quit rates and number of quit attempts reported by participants.

 

Andrea Waltje, Clinical Research Coordinator at the U-M School of Nursing, serves as Project Coordinator of the study. Research Scientist Dr. David Ronis also lends his expertise to the project. The study will rely on the participation of Operating Engineers from Local 324, a labor union located in Howell, MI.

 

The Tobacco Tactics intervention was developed in 2008 by Dr. Duffy at the Ann Arbor VA Hospital. In its original design, the website targeted the veteran population, but has since been adapted for Operating Engineers. The redesign for the Operating Engineers population was facilitated by the significant amount of overlap between the groups, as well as the fact that both groups primarily consist of men. According to Dr. Duffy, 20% of Operating Engineers are veterans.

 

In addition to being targeted for the Operating Engineers population through the use of appealing wording and imagery, the Tobacco Tactics website also generates tailored feedback to individual users. For example, users can determine how much money they would save by quitting smoking by plugging information into a cost of smoking calculator. A short questionnaire is also available on the site to help identify smoker types.

 

The website offers targeted and tailored features in addition to the basic services received when using the 1-800-QUIT-NOW help line, such as proactive telephone-based support and nicotine replacement therapy. Participants from both the website and 1-800-QUIT-NOW telephone help line groups will be assessed for quit rates and quit attempts twice during the study—after 30 days and after six months. “Number of quit attempts is important because it takes the average smoker seven attempts to quit,” explained Dr. Duffy. “We consider a quit attempt a success to some degree, because it is one step closer to making it next time.”

 

Dr. Duffy was introduced to the Operating Engineers population of Southeast Michigan thanks to the School of Nursing’s long-standing relationship with Local 324. Her first study with the population—a survey on health behaviors—was proposed after U-M nurses developing hearing protection intervention noticed an unusually high proportion of smokers among the union members.

 

Unlike veterans, individuals working in the construction trades have been identified as more likely to use chewing tobacco. To address this segment of the population, post-doctoral fellow Devon Noonan is working with Dr. Duffy to expand the website to include information on smokeless tobacco use. Future health behavior intervention work with this population may include focusing on the high occurrence of sun burning in the form of sunscreen interventions.