Real-World Impact of Quitline Interventions for Provider-Referred Smokers

Long-term Quit Rates in Fax-Referred as Compared to Self-Referred Tobacco Quitline Registrants

“…12 After the first year of the initiative's launch, Helpline fax referrals increased by more than 100% and more than 40% of fax referrals successfully resulted in Helpline enrollment. 12 Confirming previous studies of quitlines in other states, 16,17 the Oklahoma Tobacco Helpline's fax referral registrants were found to differ significantly from traditional self-callers on sociodemographic factors, tobacco use characteristics, and received Helpline services. 12 Specifically in regard to Helpline services, fax-referred clients were significantly less likely to receive NRT and the multiple call program.…”

“…These characteristics have been shown to be associated with cessation outcomes. 16,[19][20][21] Fax-referred registrants were less likely to have received NRT from the helpline. This may be a reflection of their health insurance status and contraindications for NRT.…”

Smoking, Work Stress, and Barriers to Participation in HMO Smoking Cessation Treatment Among Transit Workers: Focus Group Results

“…Little is known about the factors that hinder transit workers from participating in these smoking cessation support activities. Given that unaided quit attempts are less successful than aided quit attempts (Fiore et al, 2008;Song, Landau, Gorin, & Keithly, 2014;Zhu, Melcer, Sun, Rosbrook, & Pierce, 2000), it is important to identify the extent to which aspects of the workplace social environment and structural factors serve as barriers to transit worker participation in free or low-cost HMO-based smoking cessation support activities, and to determine how these barriers may be overcome. This paper presents results from focus group discussions held with transit workers to elicit reactions to and awareness of the covered employee options for cessation, attitudes towards smoking, job strain, and other topics.…”

Quit Outcomes and Program Utilization by Mode of Entry Among Clients Enrolling in a Quitline

“…Specifically, proactively referred clients may have greater comorbidities, less health insurance coverage, lower motivation to quit at the time of enrollment into quitline services. 16,17 Similarly, in our sample, proactively referred clients were more likely than self-referred clients to be on Medicaid (31.5% vs. 16.8%), report chronic (65% vs. 55%) and mental health conditions (41% vs. 35%), and live with other smokers in the home (50% vs. 47%). Overall, these data suggest that proactively referred clients may represent a higher-risk group of smokers with increased barriers to successful cessation.…”

“…Studies have found that actively recruited smokers, such as those referred by healthcare providers, may differ significantly from smokers who enroll on their own across several sociodemographic and smoking-related characteristics. For instance, compared with self-referred smokers, healthcare provider-referred clients may be more racially diverse and have higher comorbidities, less motivation to quit, less education, and less health insurance coverage, 16,17 factors that may influence quit rates; though this has not been found to be true in all samples. [18][19][20] Importantly, referrals from healthcare providers may occur either proactively or passively.…”