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BACKGROUND/RATIONALE:
A wealth of evidence confirms that tobacco smoking is a major risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease, including but not limited to stroke. Overall, patients who smoke exhibit at least double the risk for stroke, compared to patients who do not smoke, and associated treatment is costly. Although the VA monitors tobacco cessation counseling as performance measures in both inpatient and outpatient settings, currently there are no existing tobacco cessation programs that are systematically delivered to veterans admitted with stroke.
OBJECTIVE(S):
Lifestyle changes, particularly smoking cessation, are cost-effective interventions that can substantially reduce the incidence of an initial stroke as well as recurrent stroke. This project aims to conduct developmental formative research to characterize the current VA procedures for the management of tobacco cessation in veterans admitted with stroke or TIA, enabling the application of theory-based methods in planning an effective tobacco cessation intervention for veterans admitted with stroke or TIA.
METHODS:
Specifically, we will (a) conduct in-depth interviews with key informants (clinical and administrative) in VA settings, (b) conduct four focus groups with previous patients with stroke and their family members (n=48 participants, total), and (c) administer written surveys to previous patients and their family members (n=600 surveys, total). This broad range of informants is necessary to characterize the issue fully and to gain a clear understanding of the capacity (strengths, weaknesses) of both target populations-the healthcare providers and the patients/families-for the intervention. This information will be applied in a subsequent grant application, to operationalize a theory-based intervention that will target both the healthcare providers within the VA system and the patients/family. Given our "ground-up" approach, which addresses the needs of key stakeholders, we anticipate that our resulting intervention will witness high levels of adoption as well as ultimate success in promoting cessation among veterans admitted with stroke or TIA.
Our goal in this formative stage is to obtain the necessary data for development of a feasible and effective tobacco cessation service intervention. We envision that next steps will be to submit a VA Merit Review application. Importantly, the results of the proposed RRP will inform the Stroke QUERI's efforts in secondary stroke risk factor management among veterans with stroke.
FINDINGS/RESULTS:
There are no findings at this time.
IMPACT:
No impacts have been reported.
PUBLICATIONS:
None at this time.
DRA:
Chronic Diseases
DRE:
Prevention
Keywords:
Smoking, Stroke
MeSH Terms:
none
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