Audience: Tobacco Control & Marketing Professionals, Quitline Operators

Key Points: Effective and efficient methods to develop media strategies targeting the provider community. Direct mailings drive call volumes to quitlines.

Problem/Objective: To determine the impact of promotional educational mailings to a provider community on quitline call volumes. An educational mailing included the creation and dissemination of two posters and a provider newsletter. This article discusses the impact on call volumes from a marketing campaign directed to a provider community designed to support the service offered by the New York State Smokers' Quitline.

Methods: Two control counties which did not receive a targeted provider mailing, one a low volume county and the second a high volume county, were compared to a high volume county and a low volume county which did receive the mailings. Control counties were matched to intervention counties by population, ethnicity, cigarette smoking population and call volumes. Call volume changes were measured in a three month pre-intervention period compared to a three month post intervention period. Adjustments were then made for seasonal volume fluctuations.

Results: Seasonally adjusted call volumes for a large call volume county which received targeted provider mailings increased by 41% over a similar control county. Call volumes in a low volume county increased 850% due to the provider mailing.

Conclusions: Targeted mailings to a provider community can be very successful in increasing quitline call volumes in both high as well as low volume markets.