Methods: In September 2005, the Vermont Department of Health (VDH) began supporting, an online cessation service, Quit Net (QN), for Vermonters trying to quit smoking. VDH receives monthly intake data on clients enrolling in QN. As part of its evaluation efforts, VDH assessed who is using QN and whether they're different from those using VDH's Quit Line (QL) cessation program.

Results: In 2006, nearly 100% of QN users are current/former smokers, significantly more than the 90% of QL callers who are current/former smokers. Women use QN and QL more than men; more QN users were women than QL users (70% vs. 60%). QN and QL users are similarly distributed by age and among both, those 18-24 were under-represented and those 25-44 were over-represented when compared with the distribution of Vermont smokers by age. QN users were more educated than QL users; 4.3% of QN users had a less than high school education versus 15% of QL users. Similarly, 34% of QN users had a college education or higher; only 16% of QL users were in this category. Those with a less than high school education were under-represented and college or higher education over-represented among QN users in comparison to the education distribution among Vermont smokers.

Conclusions: In sum, the population reached by QN appears different from those using QL. This is likely, at least partially, due to the differing modes of support (internet vs. telephone). However, we intend to further explore these data and complete additional analyses.