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Tobacco cessation quitline increases likelihood of smoking abstinence

Patients who participated in a tobacco cessation quitline were more likely to achieve abstinence than participants in a Web-based tobacco cessation program, according to recent research.

“The results presented here will allow cancer, chronic disease, and tobacco control programs to better tailor their interventions to users with specific demographics and tobacco use characteristics to more effectively reach and help tobacco users quit,” Antonio J. Neri, MD, MPH, of the division of cancer prevention and control and National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at the CDC, and colleagues wrote. “Web-based tobacco cessation services are increasingly prevalent and more frequently used than before.”

Neri and colleagues evaluated the effectiveness of quitline and Web-based tobacco cessation programs for 4,086 participants across four states between 2011 and 2012, according to the abstract. Researchers analyzed outcomes at 7 months to determine the 30-day point prevalence abstinence (PPA) rate between groups and within groups. Patients who used the quitline were more likely to be older, unemployed, single, less educated and of a heterogeneous race compared with Web-based tobacco cessation program users.

At 7 months, there was a 32% PPA rate for participants who used the quitline compared with 27% of participants who used the Web-based tobacco cessation program, according to the abstract. Overall, quitline users had a 1.26 OR for achieving abstinence compared with Web-based users (95% CI, 1.00-1.58). Factors that significantly increased the likelihood of smoking cessation included not living with someone who smoked, having a partner, more interactions with the quitline or Web-based tobacco cessation program and a low use of cigarettes at baseline. – by Jeff Craven

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.