Quitline – a telephone based treatment for tobacco cessation

One way to assist smokers who want to quit is to establish telephone helplines (quitlines) easily available to all. Quitlines have proven to be comparable to cessation clinics in terms of proportion of smokers smoke free at follow-up but are more cost effective. ^*

The treatment protocol in most quitlines is a mixture of motivational interviewing, behaviour therapy, and pharmacological consultation. Qutiline numbers are presently printed on cigarette packages in many European countries as a part of the European health warning labels. Quitlines may offer a reactive service, meaning that counsellors initiated no contact but patients signing up for support are encouraged to call the service whenever they needed. Or a proactive service were patients signing up for treatment are offered a call up service. Many quitlines offer both reactive and proactive treatments and leave it up to the client to chose.

References

1. Zhu S-H, Melcer T, Sun J, Rosbrook B, Pierce MS. Smoking cessation with and without assistance a population-based analysis. Am J Prev Med 2000;18(4):305-11.

2. Zhu S-H, Anderson CM, Tedeschi GJ, et al. Evidence of real-world effectiveness of a telephone quitline for smokers. N Engl J Med 2002;347(14):1087-93.

3. Helgason AR, Tomson T, Lund KE, Galanti R, Ahnve S, Gilljam H. Factors related to abstinence in a telephone helpline for smoking cessation. European J Public Health 2004: 14;306-310.

4. Wadland WC, Stöffelmayr B, Berger E, Crombach A, Ives K. Enhancing smoking cessation rates in primary care. J Fam Pract 1999;48(9):711-18. 5. Tomson T, Helgason AR, Gilljam H. Quitline in smoking cessation – a cost effectiveness analysis. Int J of Techn Ass in Health Care 2004 : 20;469-474.^*

6. Fiore MC, Bailey WC, Cohen SJ, et al. Teating tobacco use and dependence. Clinical practice guideline. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, June 2000.

7. Stead LF, Lancaster T. Telephone counselling for smoking cessation. (Cochrane Review). In: The Cochrane Library, Issue 3, 2001. Oxford: Update Software.

8. Lichtenstein E, Glasgow RE, Lando HA, Ossip-Klein DJ, Boles SM. Telephone counseling for smoking cessation: rationales and meta-analytic review of evidence. Health Educ Res 1996;11:243-57.

9. Zhu S-H, Strecch V, Balabanis M, Rosbrook B, Sadler G, Pierce JP. Telephone counseling for smoking cessation: effects of single-session and multiple-session interventions. J Consult Clin Psychol 1996;64:202-11.

Behavioral medicine