Learning Objectives: Identify counselor characteristics that impact the caller's quit rate, program participation, perceived support, and satisfaction level.
Abstract: Importance of counselor variables can have a great impact on how Quitline programs are modeled and staffed. This poster will present the most effective, yet cost-efficient manner to staff a Quitline program. From June 2000 through May 2001, over 5,600 callers sought assistance in smoking cessation from the American Cancer Society's new telephone service. All current smokers, 18 and older, who were willing to make a serious quit attempt and who agreed to participate in the research protocol were randomized to receive either self-help materials through the mail or self-help materials and up to five sessions of telephone counseling. Follow-up evaluation was conducted on both treatment groups at 3-months, 6-months, and 1 year to gather quitting status, satisfaction with service, and perceived support from telephone counselors. This poster will report the findings of the first 1,750 callers randomized to the telephone-counseling group to find interactions between counselor variables and caller outcomes. Variables to be investigated include whether the counselor previously smoked or not, completing telephone counseling with the same counselor or different counselors, and gender of counselor vs. gender of caller. Four caller outcomes will be explored for each counselor variable: self-reported quit rate, program participation, perceived support from counselor, and satisfaction with Quitline experience. Prior analysis has shown a quit rate for callers completing four telephone sessions with the same counselor at 60% and with different counselors at 40%. Quit rates by counselor were 18.6% and 22.5% for counselors who never smoked and counselors who previously smoked, respectively.
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