Quitlines are telephone helplines offering treatment for addiction and behavior change/issues. Presently most quitlines treat tobacco or alcohol addiction. Quitlines are treatment centres that offer advanced treatment and should not be confused with call centres.
Smoking cessation quitlines
Tobacco quitlines have proven to be comparable to cessation clinics in terms of proportion of smokers smoke-free at follow-up but are more cost effective. A 2008 meta-analysis by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, found that quitline counseling increased the estimated long-run (>6 months) abstinence rate to 12.7% compared to 8.5% of smokers attempting to quit on their own; when combined with medication, the estimated long-run abstinence rate increased to 28.1% compared to 23.2% for just medication alone, a "robust effect".
The treatment protocol in most tobacco cessation quitlines is a mixture of motivational interviewing, behaviour therapy, and pharmacological consultation. Quitline numbers are printed on cigarette packages in several countries as a part of the health warning labels. Tobacco quitlines may offer a reactive service, meaning that counselors initiate no contact but clients signing up for support are encouraged to call the service whenever they need, or a proactive service where clients signing up for treatment are offered a call up service. Many quitlines offer both reactive and proactive treatments and leave it up to the client to choose.
Alcohol quitlines
Telephone based advice (call centres) for alcoholics and their relatives are relatively common and some are gradually developing into telephone based treatment centres. However, alcohol quitlines are still in their infancy. In Sweden where telephone-based treatment for tobacco addiction is well established, an advanced alcohol treatment quitline (first of its kind) opened in January 2007. The service is run in close collaboration with the Swedish national tobacco quitline. The primary aim of the Swedish alcohol quitline is to support people who are starting to lose control over their alcohol consumption to regain control. The treatment protocol is based on motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioral therapy offering support to excessive consumers of alcohol and relatives alike.
See also
References
- Zhu, Shu-Hong; Melcer, Ted; Sun, Jichao; Rosbrook, Bradley; Pierce, John P (May 2000). "Smoking cessation with and without assistance: A population-based analysis". American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 18 (4): 305–11. doi:10.1016/S0749-3797(00)00124-0. PMID 10788733.
- Zhu, Shu-Hong; Anderson, Christopher M.; Tedeschi, Gary J.; Rosbrook, Bradley (3 October 2002). "Evidence of Real-World Effectiveness of a Telephone Quitline for Smokers" (PDF). The New England Journal of Medicine. 347 (14): 1087–93. doi:10.1056/NEJMsa020660. PMID 12362011. S2CID 8364269.
- Helgason, AR; Tomson, T; Lund, KE; Galanti, R; Ahnve, S; Gilljam, H (September 2004). "Factors related to abstinence in a telephone helpline for smoking cessation". European Journal of Public Health. 14 (3): 306–10. doi:10.1093/eurpub/14.3.306. PMID 15369039.
- Wadland, William C.; Stoffelmayr, Bertram; Berger, Ellen; Crombach, Anna; Ives, Kathy (September 1999). "Enhancing smoking cessation rates in primary care". Journal of Family Plastic. 48 (9): 711–718. PMID 10498078. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
- Tomson, T; Helgason, AR; Gilljam, H (2004). "Quitline in smoking cessation: A cost-effectiveness analysis". International Journal of Technological Assessment in Health Cate. 20 (4): 469–74. doi:10.1017/S0266462304001370. hdl:10616/41159. PMID 15609797. S2CID 21602691.
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (May 2008). Treating tobacco use and dependence: 2008 update. US Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
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ignored (help) - Lindgvist, H; Forsberg, LG; Forsberg, L; Rosendahl, I; Enebrink, P; Halgason, AR (July 2013). "Motivational interviewing in an ordinary clinical setting: a controlled clinical trial at the Swedish National Tobacco Quitline". Addictive Behaviors. 38 (7): 2321–4. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2013.03.002. PMID 23584193.
- Drehmer, Jeremy E.; Hipple, Bethany; Nabi-Burza, Emara; Ossip, Deborah J.; Chang, Yuchiao; Rigotti, Nancy A.; Winickoff, Jonathan P. (24 June 2016). "Proactive enrollment of parents to tobacco quitlines in pediatric practices is associated with greater quitline use: a cross-sectional study". BMC Public Health. 16: 520. doi:10.1186/s12889-016-3147-1. PMC 4919852. PMID 27342141.
- Ahacic, Kozma; Nederfeldt, Lena; Helgason, Asgeir R (11 July 2014). "The national alcohol helpline in Sweden: an evaluation of its first year". Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy. 9: 28. doi:10.1186/1747-597X-9-28. PMC 4100057. PMID 25015403.
External links
- Quitline New South Wales, Australia
- Quitline Victoria, Australia
- North American Quitline Consortium.
- European Network of Quitlines
- Mississippi Tobacco Quitline
- Alabama Tobacco Quitline
- Quitline New Zealand
- Quitline Sweden