Brief Intervention to Create Smoke-Free Homes Policies in Low-Income Households: North Carolina Effectiveness Trial

The burden of tobacco use falls disproportionately on low-income populations, through high rates of primary smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke. The remarkable progress in creating smoke-free environments in the U.S. over the past two decades has left smoker's homes as one of the primary sources of exposure to secondhand smoke for both children and nonsmoking adults. Intervention research that identifies effective and practical strategies for reaching the minority of households that still allow smoking in the home has considerable potential to reduce smoke exposure, but suitable channels to reach low-income families are limited.

The proposed research will systematically test an intervention designed to create smoke-free homes in low income households among 2-1-1 callers. During this randomized control trial, researchers will disseminate and evaluate a brief smoke-free homes intervention through the established infrastructure of a North Carolina 2-1-1 call center. 2-1-1 is a nationally designated 3-digit telephone exchange, similar to 9-1-1 for emergencies or 4-1-1 for directory assistance, that links callers to community-based health and social services. The main hypothesis to be tested is that a higher proportion of households in the intervention group will establish and maintain a smoke-free home than in the measures-only control group.