Awareness of the Massachusetts Medicaid Cessation Benefit: Analyzing Follow-up Data

Audience:
Tobacco control staff responsible for evaluating community program initiatives and tracking health disparities.

Key Points:
Conducting a BRFSS follow-up survey is an effective method for evaluating special program initiatives.  Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program (MTCP) staff designed a brief telephone questionnaire to measure awareness of a new tobacco cessation benefit for the Medicaid population and to identify barriers to utilization of the benefit.  The follow-up survey was administered between March and September 2007, 10 to 16 months after implementation of the benefit.  Sixty-two percent of BRFSS respondents provided consent to participate in a follow-up survey.  Of those, forty-three percent responded to the survey.  Of the 2,399 follow-up survey completions, 487 were Medicaid members.

Survey results show that Medicaid smokers at follow-up had a high awareness of quitline services (64%) and the benefit (32%). Compared to non-Medicaid smokers, more Medicaid smokers reported intentions to use tobacco cessation medication if referred by a health care provider (55% vs. 47%, p=.04). 

Educational Experience:
Participants will learn how to use a BRFSS follow up survey for evaluating progress of special initiatives, and its advantages and disadvantages.

Benefits:
The presentation will describe the analytic approaches, benefits and challenges in using the BRFSS follow-up surveys.  A call-back survey makes it possible to administer the survey to smokers in the Medicaid population without a laborious and expensive process of screening Medicaid eligible smokers from the general population. Thus, the approach is cost-effective and population-based.