Academic Detailing Interventions Improve Tobacco Use Treatment among Physicians Working in Underserved Communities

Rationale: Tobacco use disproportionately affects the poor, who are, in turn, least likely to receive cessation treatment from providers. Providers caring for low-income populations perform simple components of tobacco use treatment (e.g., assessing tobacco use) with reasonable frequency. However, performance of complex treatment behaviors, such as pharmacologic prescription and follow-up arrangement, remains suboptimal.Objectives: Evaluate the influence of academic detailing (AD), a university-based, noncommercial, educational outreach intervention, on primary care physicians’ complex treatment practice behaviors within an urban care setting.Methods: Trained academic detailers made in-person visits to targeted primary care practices, delivering verbal and written instruction emphasizing three key messages related to tobacco treatment. Physicians’ self-reported frequency of simple and complex treatment behaviors were assessed using a seven-item questionnaire, before and 2 months after AD.Results: Between ...