A new national smokefree law increased calls to a national quitline

Abstract

BackgroundA law making all indoor workplaces including bars and restaurants smokefree became operational in New Zealand in December 2004. New Zealand has a national free-phone Quitline Service which has been operational since 1999. Previous work has shown that the number of calls to the Quitline are influenced by marketing of the service through media campaigns. We set out to investigate if the smokefree law increased calls to the Quitline.MethodsFor 24 months prior to the law, and 12 months after the law, data were collected on: (i) Quitline caller registrations and the issuing of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) vouchers by the Quitline Service; (ii) expenditure on Quitline-related television advertising; (iii) expenditure on other smokefree television advertising; and (iv) print media coverage of smoking in major New Zealand newspapers. These data were inputs to a time series analysis using a Box-Jenkins transfer function model. This used the law change as the intervention variable, with the response series being the monthly Quitline caller rates and monthly first time NRT voucher issue rates.ResultsThe monthly rates of Quitline caller registrations and NRT voucher issues were observed to increase in the months after the law change. The increase in both these outcomes was even greater when considered in terms of per level of Quitline advertising expenditure (though these patterns may have partly reflected marked reductions in advertising expenditure at the time of the law change and hence are of limited validity).In the more robust time series analyses, the law change (intervention variable) had a significant effect (p = 0.025) on increasing the monthly caller registration rate in December 2004. This was after adjusting for the possible effects of Quitline advertising expenditure, print media coverage, and other smoking-related advertising expenditure.ConclusionThe new national smokefree law resulted in increased quitting-related behaviour. This would suggest there is an extra opportunity for health agencies to promote quitting at such times.

Do Smoke-Free Laws in Rural, Distressed Counties Encourage Cessation?

“…Furthermore, those living in the rural, distressed smoke-free community smoked approximately the same number of cigarettes per day (about 16-25 cigarettes daily during the past month) and reported about the same length of time since their last cigarette (approximately 0-7 days), compared to those living in comparable counties without smoke-free legislation. These findings are contrary to our previous study showing that smokers may be more likely to quit when living in a community with a longstanding comprehensive smoke-free workplace law (Hahn et al, 2009), and other studies reporting positive cessation outcomes after these laws (Albers et al, 2007;Gallus et al, 2006;Grassi et al, 2009;Moskowitz et al, 2000;Wilson et al, 2007).…”

“…Some studies report increased interest in quitting, reduced consumption, and successful abstinence with smoke-free laws (Albers, Siegel, Cheng, Biener, & Rigotti, 2007;Gallus et al, 2006;Grassi, Enea, Ferketich, Lu, & Nencini, 2009;Moskowitz, Lin, & Hudes, 2000;Wilson et al, 2007), but these behaviors may be short-lived (Chan et al, 2009;Fowkes, Stewart, Fowkes, Amos, & Price, 2008;Lewis, Haw, & McNeill, 2008). One study indicated that there may be a delayed effect on cessation; the longer a comprehensive smoke-free workplace law is in place, the more likely smokers may be to quit (Hahn, Rayens, Langley, Darville, & Dignan, 2009).…”

After the smoke has cleared: evaluation of the impact of a new national smoke-free law in New Zealand

“…Numbers of calls remained elevated each month compared to the previous year until March 2005, and the monthly number of NRT vouchers issued was higher until May 2005 25. This pattern was observed despite a marked reduction in advertising expenditure on smoking cessation promotion in early 2005, partly implemented to reduce demand.…”

“…The main sources of information on smoking related behaviours and smoking prevalence came from time series analyses we conducted of the number of caller registrations and nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) exchange cards issued by the national quitline before and after the introduction of the smoke-free legislation25; the frequency of smoking reported by smokers in pubs and bars, restaurant and nightclubs in the HSC monitor surveys16; and from market research data from AC Nielsen on supermarket tobacco sales and Statistics New Zealand data on the amount of tobacco released onto the New Zealand market 16. We also used data on reported parental smoking prevalence among children in the national year 10 smoking survey 24…”

Effect of tobacco control policies on information seeking for smoking cessation in the Netherlands: A Google Trends study

“…Based on studies on the effect of smoking cessation policies on quit attempts, we hypothesize that the introduction of smoke-free legislation will cause a temporary increase in search queries with a maximum duration of six months [10][11][12][13][14]. Based on findings from two RCTs and a real life study on the effects of reimbursement of SCS, it is expected that the reimbursement of SCS will cause a longer increase in search queries of maximally two years [15][16][17].…”