Effectiveness of the American Lung Association Reactive Anti-Smoking Telephone Help Line in Illinois

An estimated 47 million adult Americans smoke. Telephone counseling is considered a promising mode of intervention for smoking cessation. While pro-active (acting in anticipation of future change) telephone counseling has been shown to be efficacious in randomized trials, evaluation of reactive (occurring as a result of a stimulus) phone lines has been criticized by the lack of randomization and adequate controls for comparison. The American Lung Association has launched a reactive telephone help line to assist in smoking cessation. The proposed study will evaluate its effectiveness in a randomized controlled trial design involving active smokers who call this helpline. Eligible callers will be randomized into two groups: those who receive self-help literature only (i.e. control group) and those who receive additional reactive telephone counseling (i.e. study group). Detailed information will be collected proactively by an independent research calling specialist from all subjects who enroll into the study, by way of follow-up telephone calls, at one, three, six and twelve months following the screen date. The outcome measures to be compared are abstinence rates, quit attempts, changes in extent of smoking and behavioral stage, and cost-effectiveness. A thousand subjects will be enrolled in the two study arms in equal numbers over a period of fifteen months. Intent to treat analysis will be used after adjustment for covariates. The significance of this study lies in establishing the public health importance of such a reactive telephone helpline as a low intensity and low cost interventional smoking cessation tool.