Evaluation of the Illinois Tobacco Quitline

Smoking is the leading preventable cause of mortality in the U.S. While more than 70% of smokers have tried to quit, without guidance or counseling fewer than 5% will succeed. To assist smokers who wish to quit, the American Lung Association (ALA) of the Upper Midwest, in partnership with the Illinois Department of Public Health, developed the Illinois Tobacco Quitline. The Quitline is a toll-free, confidential service that connects smokers with trained counselors who can guide and support them through the quitting process. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the Quitline. To evaluate the Quitline, all callers were telephoned at least 6 months after their initial call. To ensure an adequate response rate each potential respondent was called up to 8 times. Telephone interviews were completed with 459 callers. The response rate was 67.5%. The refusal rate was 4%. Interviews averaging five minutes asked about the callers' perceptions of the Quitline and materials, smoking behavior, and demographic information. Nearly a quarter (24%) of respondents reported quitting and another 17% reported cutting down. Similar findings were noted by gender, ethnicity and education level. The vast majority (75%) said they had quit using tobacco for 24 hours or longer since calling the Quitline. Most current tobacco users (62%) intend to attempt quitting within the next 30 days. Results indicate that most callers are receptive to cessation efforts. It appears that the focus should not be on efforts to convince smokers to quit, but rather on providing them with the knowledge and skills to quit. There was high satisfaction with the Quitline. Eighty-five percent of all respondents were very or mostly satisfied. By far, the nicotine patch was the most common method used (63%) to try to quit smoking, followed by medication, nicotine gum, and another nicotine product. Respondents found medication and the nicotine patch more helpful than nicotine gum or another nicotine product. Referral was clearly the most frequent way of hearing about the Quitline, followed by media and other advertising. An information packet was made available to all callers. Almost all respondents (93%) found the information packet helpful. Respondents found the Quitline telephone counseling helpful with a median score of 8 on a 10-point scale. Nearly all respondents (94%) would recommend the Quitline to a family member or friend. Very encouraging was the finding of no association between recommending the Quitline and smoking status.