Alcohol Cessation Among Head and Neck Cancer Survivors

Study Summary

Head-and-neck cancers (HNC) account for 4 percent of cancer diagnoses in the United States and for more than 66,000 annual cancer diagnoses. The prevalence rate of HNC among Veterans is 150% higher than the rate in the general population. Together with smoking, alcohol drinking is a major risk factor for HNC, responsible for approximately one-third of the cases worldwide. Overwhelming evidence from population-based studies show that alcohol drinking significantly increases the risk of recurrence of the primary HNC and of second primary malignancies, as well as negatively impacts HNC survivors' psychosocial health. Hence, several organizations (i.e., American Cancer Society, American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the World Cancer Research Fund) have issued guidelines recommending that individuals with HNC reduce or avoid alcohol altogether. Despite these recommendations, a substantial proportion of HNC survivors continue to use alcohol. The overall goal of the proposed research is to: 1. Adapt an existing evidence-based text message alcohol cessation intervention for HNC survivors in both civilian and VA settings (i.e., at two sites, Northwell Health and the Brooklyn VA Medical Center); and 2. Preliminarily evaluate, in a two-arm pilot RCT, the acceptability and preliminary efficacy of the intervention, as well as feasibility of conduct a future RCT. The investigators hypothesize that: * H1: The tailored text-message intervention will be 1) feasible to evaluate in a large-scale RCT, defined as achieving an enrollment rate of ≥70% in this pilot; and 2) acceptable to participants, defined as a score ≥4 on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from "not at all" to "extremely" acceptable. * H2: Compared to the control condition of alcohol assessment and feedback (AF), the tailored text messages will result in a 30% increase in cessation among survivors (assuming also a 20% increase in cessation in the AF arm).

Primary Outcome

Survivors will self-report the amount of alcohol they are consuming at the 6 month follow-up assessment using the Time-Line Follow Back (TFLB) interview, a semi-structured interview designed to collect information about survivors' daily substance use. The TLFB was validated in 1996 and has demonstrated good test-retest reliability, convergent validity, and agreement with collateral reports of alcohol abuse. Participants will be asked to report their substance use over the prior 4 weeks via phone

Conditions Studied

Interventions

• BEHAVIORAL Usual Care
• BEHAVIORAL Alcohol Cessation Text Messages

Study Locations (1)