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Wednesday, October 24, 2007 - 3:30 PM
Room 200 B
Reach and Efficacy of Quitlines for Ethnic Minority Smokers
Shu-Hong Zhu, PhD, University of California, San Diego, Family and Preventive Medicine, California Smokers' Helpline, szhu@ucsd.edu, Sharon E. Cummins, PhD, University of California, San Diego, Moores Cancer Center, California Smokers' Helpline, scummins@ucsd.edu, Christopher M. Anderson, BA, University of California, San Diego, Moores Cancer Center, California Smokers' Helpline, cmanderson@ucsd.edu, Kirsten J. Hansen, MPP, University of California, San Diego, Moores Cancer Center, California Smokers' Helpline, k3hansen@ucsd.edu. Learning Objectives: Describe data indicating that quitlines are able to reach large numbers of ethnic minority tobacco users, and identify successful outreach strategies. Describe evidence from five randomized, controlled trials demonstrating the efficacy of a quitline intervention for African-American and Hispanic/Latino tobacco users. Describe data suggesting the feasibility and acceptability of quitlines for American Indian commercial tobacco users.
Key Points: Ethnic minority smokers are often underrepresented in clinical trials of tobacco cessation interventions, and underutilize treatment programs. These facts lead to doubts about the suitability of available treatment options for non-white smokers. Data from the California Smokers' Helpline and statewide surveys, however, show that ethnic minority smokers are well represented among quitline callers. Efficacy of the service for African-American (AA) and Hispanic/Latino (HL) smokers is demonstrated by aggregating results from five large, randomized, controlled trials performed under similar quality control conditions, yielding sufficiently large samples of AA (n=1,210) and HL (n=1,361) participants for analysis. AA and HL participants randomly assigned to multi-session counseling were significantly more likely to quit than those assigned to a control: 6-month continuous abstinence rates were 23.3% and 15.1% for AA and 26.0% and 16.1% for HL (all p's<0.001). The American Indian (AI) sample in the trials was too small to make efficacy claims, but an additional study following up 393 AI participants suggests the feasibility and acceptability of quitlines for this group.
Learning Objectives: Participants will be able to describe new, strong evidence for the efficacy of a quitline for AA and HL smokers, additional evidence for the suitability of quitlines for AI smokers, and successful strategies for reaching out to these groups.
Benefits: This session provides clear evidence of the potential of quitlines to help ethnic minority smokers quit.