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We received over 200,000 calls since 1997. For most of the callers, their phone call to Asian Quitline is their first attempt at seeking support and counseling to quit, most of the callers have not taken any previous steps towards quitting, and only a small number have tried any of the products available such as nicotine replacement therapy. Age and Gender of our service users 52% of the callers were men and 44% were women. 4% of callers, however, did not disclose their gender. 7% were under 16, 34% between 16 and 34 years old and 25% were over 35. 34% of the callers, however, did not disclose their age. Who were they calling for? Caller calling for: %
If caller calling for self: %
Other data from Asian Quitline showed that the average age of starting to smoke was 17 years. Average number of cigarettes smoked in a day was 17, the first cigarette smoked within the first hour of waking up. For the majority (26%) of the callers the number of cigarettes smoked has gone up in the past year. Reasons why seeking to quit Reason %
What Currently doing to quit smoking Method %
Type of Assistance sought or nature of call%
Outcome of Call/ Action taken by Counselor 64% of our callers received intensive counseling or chose to call back for continued and more support. Our Counselors are also responding to the calls by providing information on products or sending information packs, giving advice on quitting and associated health factors as well as referrals to other local agencies. Rating our Service 87% of our callers found us very useful. 10% found us not useful. With 3% not sure. 90% of the callers found our counselors very helpful. 5% were not sure. 3% did not answer and only 2% found us not helpful. Other Research Research commissioned by QUIT and published in Tobacco Control (A BMJ publication) June 2000 Vol 9 No:2 148-154, found high self-reported abstinence rates of 22% on our 0800 00 22 00 line. Smoking cessation guidelines for health professionals, published in Thorax 2000 Issue 55: 987-999, make some specific recommendations for smoking cessation work based on a collation of evidence from research. Brief opportunistic advice from a physician to stop smoking delivered to smokers attending GP surgeries or outpatients clinics leads to between 1% to 3% abstinence. This advice appears to trigger a quit attempt rather than increase the chances of successful attempt. Written self-help material received by smokers who are not in receipt of other forms of assistance leads to between 0% and 2% of abstinence. However, materials that are tailor made to the characteristics of a particular smoker can be more effective than generic materials. Telephone counseling offered through a free-phone number in appropriate languages is therefore potentially an easily accessible method of intervention for smokers who may be limited by language, time, cost, issues around confidentiality or cultural taboos. This is particularly true within the Asian communities, where cultural and religious taboos has often prevented young smokers and female smokers from using available medical help through their family GPs. Also those smokers who are unable to speak English have found this service to be highly accessible. As a method of intervention, it has also shown to be effective in improving cessation rates. In the absence of other support services , telephone counseling can be a powerful medium to facilitate a quit attempt or to help those that are attempting to quit sustain their efforts. Asian Quitline is a very useful partner for local smoking cessation groups and health professionals as very often we broker the first contact or build in roads into the local community organizations for our NHS and other partners. We are also a very good source of referrals as we motivate many smokers to use their local services too. |
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