Telephone Counseling for Pregnant Smokers
Creators: name: University Of California Office Of The President
Publisher: name: University of California Office of the President
publisherIdentifier: https://ror.org/00dmfq477
publisherIdentifierScheme: ROR
Year: 2024

description: Maternal smoking during pregnancy or shortly after childbirth has serious health consequences for the fetus or the developing infant. It is associated with an increased risk for spontaneous abortion, pregnancy complications, premature delivery, low birth weight, and prenatal and neonatal death. The increased risk can be reversed or minimized if women stop smoking soon after they become pregnant. However, it is estimated that 15% of pregnant women in the United States smoke cigarettes. Furthermore, of those who successfully quit during their pregnancy, 70% relapse soon after their baby is born. Thus, there is a pressing need to develop programs that can help these women quit smoking during pregnancy and prevent them from relapsing after childbirth. Unfortunately, few pregnant women have access to a suitable program, one designed to account for their distinctive circumstances and needs. Quitting smoking is difficult at any point in time, but stresses unique to pregnancy and to the postpartum period make it even more challenging for the women. 
 
 
 
 
 
 This study will test the effectiveness of a telephone counseling helpline specifically designed for pregnant women. The counseling will be provided over the phone so that the pregnant women need not leave home to receive the help. The counseling will be tailored to individual needs as each woman will be assigned to a specific counselor who will work with her individually to come up with a quitting plan that suits her personally. The counselor will provide counseling over the phone to assist her to stop smoking (or to stay quit) throughout the pregnancy, and offer counseling and support up to six months postpartum.
 
 
 
 
 
 This study will recruit participants through the Partnership for Smokefree Families (PSF), a collaboration of three large and integrated health care systems in San Diego, which provide health care for about 20,000 pregnant women each year. It is estimated that about 80% of these pregnant women see their doctor during the first trimester for prenatal care. This provides a prime opportunity to intervene with this population. Physicians can ask their pregnant patients if they smoke. If they do, physicians can advise them to quit, provide written self-help materials, and refer them to the telephone counseling helpline (known as the PSF Helpline). The referral consists of two elements: 1) The smokers will be encouraged to call the helpline; 2) permission to have a counselor call them at home will also be requested. This study will use a proactive calling procedure to enroll these pregnant smokers into counseling if they fail to call the helpline after their visit with the physicians. The physicians can also provide support and a degree of accountability for pregnant smokers by asking about their smoking status at subsequent prenatal visits. As physicians may not have the time or training to offer smoking cessation counseling, the prenatal visit will be used as a springboard to enroll smokers into more extensive assistance, in this case the telephone counseling helpline. This would allow pregnant women to get the attention they need and would minimize the time drain on physicians.
 
 
 
 
 
 This study is designed to:
 
 1) Determine how often pregnant smokers will call a free helpline for counseling after they are advised to do so in their first prenatal visit. 
 
 2) Determine how many pregnant smokers will participate in counseling if contacted proactively.
 
 3) Test if telephone counseling can help pregnant smokers quit smoking and stay abstinent after the baby is born. This will be accomplished with a randomized design.
 
 
 
 
 
 Determine if quitting as a result of doctors’ advice and/or telephone counseling increases birth weights of babies born to participating women.