Learning Objectives: Learn about an innovative way to organize a quitline operation and marketing initiative, pilot the project among certain populations, and coordinate marketing dollars vs. calls ratios.
Abstract:
Problem/Objective:
The Ohio Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation (TUPCF) is supporting the operation of the first statewide quit line in Ohio as a strategy to decrease tobacco use. Currently, Ohio is fourth among states for prevalence of adult smoking at 27.6 percent. To carefully manage both human and funding resources, TUPCF investigated creative ways to pilot the quit line, including giving the vendor a fiscal stake.
Methods:
In a first-of-its-kind arrangement, TUPCF structured its quit line pilot so that one organization had total responsibility for the development, operation, marketing and evaluation of a quit line in three Ohio communities known to have high tobacco use rates. The vendor’s contract requires that it balance the marketing levels with incoming calls to ensure maximum value.
In addition, the pilot program includes a marketing effort targeted to urban African American and rural Appalachian residents of the pilot communities. The intent of this focus is to determine, through evaluation, the effectiveness of this approach in increasing quit attempts and successful cessation of tobacco use among minority and Appalachian residents.
Results:
TUPCF has recently entered into a 12-month contract with a quit line provider and its marketing subcontractor with goals of 500 calls per month and six-month to one-year quit rates of 20 percent. (At conference, TUPCF will have five months of data/experience to report.)
Conclusions:
One way to address the delicate balance between quit line marketing and calls is structuring contracts with quit line vendors to ensure responsibility, accountability, coordination and communication.
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Back to The 2003 National Conference on Tobacco or Health (December 10-12, 2003)