Enhancing Quit and Win Contests to Improve Cessation Among College Smokers

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Helping young smokers quit is a national health priority, but few evidence-based treatments are designed for them. Developing and delivering appealing and effective smoking cessation interventions for young people is critically needed. Colleges and universities, which enroll over 14 million young adults, are ideal settings to reach a substantial proportion of young adult smokers. Standard Quit & Win contests, in which smokers typically quit for one month in return for the opportunity to win prizes, are simple to implement and easy to disseminate and may be particularly cost-effective in encouraging cessation, at least short term. Many features of these contests appear well suited for implementation on college campuses, but their overall benefit is limited by relapse to smoking after the brief contest period. These findings confirm the need for interventions, such as those proposed here, designed to maintain abstinence beyond the initial Quit & Win contest period. Our objective in this proposal is to evaluate the separate and combined efficacy of increased dose and enhanced content within a theory based approach to enhance abstinence among college campus Quit and Win participants. First, we will test the effect of the dose of treatment by extending the number of contests from one month to three successive monthly contests. Second, we will test the content of treatment by adding cessation counseling. Our innovative approach, Motivational Relapse Prevention (MRP), focuses on increasing intrinsic motivation and coping strategies to prevent relapse. We propose a 2 x 2 factorial randomized controlled trial with smokers (n = 1,256) on 2- and 4-year college campuses. Participants will be randomized to one of four conditions: Tx1): Standard Quit and Win Contest (1 month) + College Health (Contact Control) Counseling; Tx2): Standard Quit and Win Contest (1 month) + Motivational Relapse Prevention (MRP) Counseling; Tx3): Extended Quit and Win Contest (3 successive monthly contests) + College Health (Control) Counseling; Tx4): Extended Quit and Win Contest (3 successive monthly contests) + MRP Counseling. This study will test the following aims: All counseling calls will be delivered via six telephone-administered sessions over the 12 week intervention period using participant sensitive scheduling. The primary outcome will be 30-day abstinence validated via urine cotinine measured 9 months after study enrollment (i.e., 6 months after the end of the intervention period. This proposal addresses a critical need for appealing and effective interventions to help young people to quit smoking. We anticipate that at the completion of this research we will have identified specific strategies for improving sustained abstinence rates among college campus Quit & Win participants and that these results will be of great interest to decision makers and program planners at colleges and universities nationwide. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Our objective in this proposal is to evaluate the separate and combined efficacy of increased dose and enhanced content within a theory based approach to enhance abstinence among college campus Quit and Win participants. First, we will test the effect of the dose of treatment by extending the number of contests from one month to three successive monthly contests. Second, we will test the content of treatment by adding cessation counseling, Motivational Relapse Prevention (MRP), an innovative counseling strategy focused on increasing intrinsic motivation and coping strategies to prevent relapse. At the completion of this research we will have identified specific strategies for improving sustained abstinence rates among college campus Quit & Win participants and anticipate that these results will be of great interest to decision makers and program planners at colleges and universities nationwide.