Pharmacotherapies: Effectiveness in Primary Care Systems
This project addressed the effectiveness of cessation medications offered in real-world primary care settings. It also assessed patients’ willingness to participate in cessation treatment, and evaluated recruitment and delivery strategies. Primary-care patients who presented for a regular outpatient visit were recruited by medical assistants to participate in a free smoking-cessation program. They were randomly assigned to the same five active pharmacotherapies evaluated in Project 1.
Interested patients who passed the medical screening picked up their medications at clinic pharmacies and received proactive telephone counseling from the Wisconsin Tobacco Quit Line.
Researchers assessed individual differences to validate treatment algorithms developed in Project 1, and estimated the costs of incorporating tobacco-dependence treatment into primary care.
Smoking status was followed for one year, and health care utilization was tracked for three years as part of Project 4. Thus, Project 3 revealed the relative effectiveness of five different pharmacotherapies in real-world primary care settings, the utility of an algorithm for assigning pharmacotherapies based on individual differences, and the cost-effectiveness and success of this treatment recruitment and delivery strategy.
