Mobile Contingency Management to Help Veteran Smokers Quit Around Major Elective Surgery

What this Trial Is About

Researchers are evaluating a mobile contingency management CM intervention to help military Veterans who smoke quit smoking around the time of major elective surgery. Smoking is a major risk factor for complications after surgery, including longer hospital stays, reoperations, and increased mortality. This study aims to develop and test a tailored mobile CM program that uses positive rewards to encourage smoking abstinence in Veterans undergoing various types of surgeries. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of two groups the mobile CM group or treatment as usual TAU. The CM group will use a mobile carbon monoxide CO monitor and app to upload videos verifying smoking abstinence at least once daily, five times a week, over five weeks. They will receive financial incentives and brief counseling sessions based on their CO readings. The TAU group will receive standard care including referrals to the VA Tobacco Cessation Clinic and VA Telequit Quitline, along with pharmacotherapy for tobacco use disorder. During the study, participants will be monitored for recruitment, engagement, and retention over a five-week treatment period. Researchers will assess smoking cessation outcomes such as quit attempts, cigarettes per day, nicotine dependence severity, and cigarette abstinence using self-reports and CO verification. The study will measure these outcomes up to six weeks from baseline and follow-up, aiming to demonstrate the feasibility and potential effectiveness of mobile CM for smoking cessation in Veterans undergoing surgery.

Contingency Management for Veteran Smokers Undergoing Major Elective Surgery