Past Studies

TIP TOP (Tobacco Intervention in Primary Care Treatment Opportunities for Providers)

Tip Top study logo showing outline of South CarolinaTeam IMPACT’s previous work has shown that nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) when sent to smokers not interested in quitting smoking, increases motivation and confidence to quit, and quit attempts among adults who smoke. Given that many health care providers need simple, pragmatic tools to help their patients quit, NRT sampling might be a brief, concrete strategy to apply within primary care settings.

Done in collaboration with 22 primary care clinics across the state of South Carolina, TIP TOP compared the effects of standard care provided by primary care providers with and without NRT sampling in smokers both motivated and unmotivated to quit smoking. The study found that when primary care visits were paired with a free 2-week starter kit of NRT quit attempts, use of smoking cessation medication, and smoking abstinence all increased compared to primary care visits alone.

To learn more about the results of the TIP TOP study, please explore the published work below:

1. Dahne J, Wahlquist AE, Boatright AS, Garrett-Mayer E, Fleming DO, Davis R, Egan B, Carpenter MJ. Nicotine replacement therapy sampling via primary care: Methods from a pragmatic cluster randomized clinical trial. Contemporary Clinical Trials. 2018;72:1-7. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2018.07.008; PMCID: 6133738.

2. Carpenter MJ, Wahlquist AE, Dahne J, Gray KM, Garrett-Mayer E, Cummings KM, Davis R, Egan BM. Nicotine replacement therapy sampling for smoking cessation within primary care: Results from a pragmatic cluster randomized clinical trial. Addiction. 2020;115:1358-67. doi: 10.1111/add.14953; PMCID: 7292788.

3. Silvestri NJ, Dahne J, Wahlquist AE, Toll B, Carpenter MJ. Does medication sampling improve compliance with brief advice? Results from a pragmatic randomized clinical trial. Journal of Smoking Cessation. 2021;2021:1-4. doi: 10.1155/2021/6638872; PMCID: 8023690.

4. Chen B, Silvestri GA, Dahne J, Lee K, Carpenter MJ. The cost effectiveness of nicotine replacement therapy sampling in primary care: A markov cohort simulation model. Journal of General Internal Medicine. 2022;37:3684-91. doi: 10.1007/s11606-021-07335-x; PMCID: 9585132.

CONNECT (Clinical Outcomes of a Nationwide, Naturalistic E-Cigarette Trial)

Connect study logo showing map of the U.S. with lines flowing out from CharlestonThe CONNECT study was developed due to the lack of data showing the natural processes by which smokers adopt e-cigarettes and how e-cigarettes change the smoking behavior. Smokers who did or did not want to quit smoking were recruited across the entire country and randomly assigned to either receive a 4-week supply of e-cigarette material, or not. At the time of study publication (2023), it was the largest clinical trial of e-cigarettes ever conducted in the U.S.

Roughly 70% of those in the e-cigarette group used the product given to them, and 44% were still using an e-cigarette at six month follow-up. Participants in e-cigarette group were more likely to report cigarette abstinence after the 4-week trial and at all follow-up assessments through six months. As a naturalistic clinical trial in which participants could use e-cigarettes however they wished, our results demonstrate that many of the cessation-related outcomes seen from other studies also apply to real-world use.

To learn more about the results of the CONNECT study, please explore the published work below, with others upcoming:

1. Fahey MC, Dahne J, Chen B, Smith TT, Wahlquist AE, Carpenter MJ. “And then I found $5”: Optimizing recruitment efficiency in remote clinical trials. Journal of Clinical and Translational Science. 2023;7:e102. doi: 10.1017/cts.2023.533; PMCID: 10225265.

2. Carpenter MJ, Wahlquist AE, Dahne J, Gray KM, Cummings KM, Warren G, Wagener TL, Goniewicz ML, Smith T. Effect of unguided e-cigarette provision on uptake, use, and smoking cessation among adults who smoke in the USA: A naturalistic, randomised, controlled clinical trial. Lancet eClinical Medicine. 2023;63:102142. doi: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.102142; PMCID: 10518503.

3. O’Neal RA, Carpenter MJ, Wahlquist AE, Leavens ELS, Smith TT, Fahey MC. The prospective relationship between a-priori intentions for and patterns of e-cigarette use among adults who smoke cigarettes. Addictive Behaviors. 2024;156:108067. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2024.108067.