[Results of two nationwide "smoke-free" campaigns]

"Rauchfrei" -- the German part of the international contest "Quit and Win"-- is the biggest smoking cessation campaign in Germany. Already in the year 2000 24,925 smokers participated. A total of 90,458 adolescents and adults participated in "Rauchfrei 2002", that means about 0.5 % of all German smokers.

Main aim of the quit smoking campaign is to motivate as many smokers as possible to stop smoking for at least four-weeks and herewith to achieve a stop of the tobacco consumption in the long run. In this context the continuous 4-weeks and 12-months abstinence rates of the participants serve as indicators for success.

A survey with the adult participants aged 18 and older was carried out one year after each campaign. The samples were drawn randomly from all 10 German postal zip code-areas. A response rate of over 60 % in both surveys resulted in a sample size of n = 651 (2000) and n = 996 (2002).

By the end of "Quit and Win 2000" (2002) 72 % (69 %) of the participants were smoke-free; 12 months after the campaign 30 % (22 %) of the participants were continuously smoke-free. Overall, men were more successful than women, and participants with a lower education were as successful as participants with a higher school education. Substantially more participants, who had received support from either family members, friends or colleagues, had abstinence rates above the average.

"Rauchfrei" was successfully implemented in Germany and contributed to draw attention to the risks of smoking nationwide.