• Benjamin A Toll, Steve Martino, Stephanie S O'Malley, Lisa M Fucito, Sherry A McKee, Christopher W Kahler, Alana M Rojewski, Martin C Mahoney, Ran Wu, Paula Celestino, Srinivasa Seshadri, James Koutsky, Andrew Hyland, and K Michael Cummings.
• Department of Psychiatry.
• J Consult Clin Psychol. 2015 Jun 1; 83 (3): 445-54.

ObjectiveThis study evaluated whether tobacco quitline telephone coaches can be trained to counsel hazardous-drinking smokers to improve smoking cessation success and to limit or abstain from alcohol use.MethodSmokers (N = 1,948) who called the New York State Smokers' Quitline and reported hazardous drinking (exceeding sex-specific weekly limits [14 drinks for men, 7 drinks for women] or meeting/exceeding daily drinking limits [5 drinks for men, 4 drinks for women] at least once in the past year) were randomized to receive either brief motivational counseling to limit or abstain from alcohol plus an alcohol reduction booklet added to standard care (Alcohol + Tobacco Counseling; ATC), or only smoking cessation counseling plus a smoking cessation booklet added to standard care (Tobacco-Only Counseling; TOC).ResultsAcceptable coach adherence was achieved. The intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis showed that ATC was associated with a significantly higher rate of smoking abstinence at 7-month follow-up (13.5%) compared with TOC (10.3%; p = .03). The respondent analysis (ATC= 26.2%; TOC = 20.4%) paralleled the ITT findings. When controlling for treatment condition, participants who did not report any heavy drinking were significantly more likely to quit smoking than those who reported any heavy drinking (OR = 1.87, 95% CI [1.29, 2.71]; p = .001).ConclusionsA brief alcohol intervention plus standard care via a telephone quitline resulted in significantly higher smoking cessation rates for hazardous-drinking callers. Given that quitline coaches were trained to provide the intervention with acceptable adherence, the potential to extend this intervention for wide-scale implementation and impact is promising.(c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

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