A stop-smoking telephone help line that nobody called

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Health maintenance organizations (HMOs) aim to improve member health outcomes.
• Smoking cessation support is a key component of preventive healthcare.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the utilization and reach of a dedicated smoker's hotline service.
• To identify factors influencing the effectiveness of smoking cessation interventions delivered via telephone.

Main Methods:

• Formative evaluation to identify user needs and concerns.
• Multi-channel promotion of the hotline service over 33 months.
• Analysis of call volume data, excluding a promotional giveaway period.

Main Results:

• The smoker's hotline served over 2100 health maintenance organization members.
• Excluding a special promotion, an average of fewer than three calls per month were received.
• Consistent and intensive publicity is crucial for hotline utilization.

Conclusions:

• Smoker's hotlines require significant population reach and sustained, intensive promotion to be cost-effective.
• Low call volume suggests a need for enhanced outreach strategies for smoking cessation services.