Update on Calls to Quitlines through 1-800-QUIT-NOW!
Wednesday, June 16, 2021
Posted by: Natalia Gromov
Update on Calls to Quitlines through 1-800-QUIT-NOW! June 16, 2021
Dear Colleagues,
In April, NAQC reported on an increase in calls made to state quitlines through the national portal (1-800-QUIT-NOW) for the first three months of the year and promised to update you again in June. This bulletin contains information on calls through the national portal from January 1 through the end of May 2021.
As shown in the table below, calls through 1-800-QUIT-NOW were higher in March 2021 than in March 2019 and 2020, but this change did not continue in April and May. The calls in April and May 2021 exceeded those in April and May 2020 but were lower than calls for the same months in 2019. The national portal would need to receive 118,710 calls for state quitlines in the month of June to have a 2021 call volume that is equivalent to the first 6 months of 2019.
Table. 1-800-QUIT-NOW Record of Calls| Year/Month | January | February | March | April | May | June | Total | | 2019 | 51,447 | 43,126 | 43,304 | 71,474 | 67,084 | 81,647 | 358,082 | | 2020 | 48,766 | 40,964 | 39,471 | 42,418 | 42,555 | 48,671 | 262,845 | | 2021 | 39,262 | 35,511 | 66,997 | 49,545 | 48,057 | TBD | 239,372 |
Source: 1-800-Quit Now Data for US States: Call Attempts prepared by NCI
Overall, call volume to 1-800-QUIT-NOW was down 13% in the first five months of 2021 compared to the same time period in 2019. However, 12 states (CA, DC, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NJ, TX, VA, VT, WI) had higher call volume through 1-800-QUIT-NOW in January to May of 2021 compared to the same five months of 2019. New Jersey saw the highest increase, exceeding the call volume of 2019 by 21% (or more than 450 additional calls).
States that have exceeded the 2019 call volume so far in 2021 shared the following promotional strategies:- Local and cable television ad campaigns
- Incentives for pregnant/postpartum women, callers that were on Medicaid or uninsured, and menthol users
- Social media ads
- Ads during the pandemic such as social media ads that specifically mention the risks of smoking and COVID-19 and ads placed at mass vaccination sites
- Promoting free NRT in ads by tagging them with “"Get free support from the Tobacco Quitline with coaching, nicotine patches and gum.”
- Ads placed in pharmacies, waiting areas, and on transit
- Collaborating with partners to increase reach
Two states rebranded between 2019 and 2021 to promote 1-800-QUIT-NOW as the main number, so the increases in those states may not represent increases in total call volume but rather increases in the volume coming in through the 1-800-QUIT-NOW portal.
We hope that some of these strategies may be of interest to your states as you consider ways to increase calls. We know call volumes increase when the Tips from Former Smokers Campaign ads are tagged with an NRT message, and NAQC has asked CDC to consider increasing the number of weeks during which the Campaign ads are tagged with the NRT message. We ask all of you to support this strategy as well.
Please share any additional promotional activities that have worked in your state and contact Katie Mason (kmason@naquitline.org) if you would like to discuss challenges or successes.
Thank you for your efforts to increase calls to state quitlines!
NAQC Staff | |
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