Evaluation of the Asian Smokers' Quitline: A Centralized Service for a Dispersed Population
Monday, March 22, 2021
Posted by: Natalia Gromov
Chen C, Anderson CM, Babb
SD, Frank R, Wong S, Kuiper NM, Zhu SH.
Evaluation of the Asian
Smokers' Quitline: A Centralized Service for a Dispersed Population.
Am J Prev Med. 2021 Mar;60(3 Suppl 2):S154-S162. doi:
10.1016/j.amepre.2020.01.033. PMID: 33663703.
Introduction.
Asian immigrants to the U.S. smoke at higher rates than U.S.-born Asians. However,
few programs exist to help these immigrants quit and little is known about
their real-world effectiveness. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
funded the Asian Smokers' Quitline to serve Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese
immigrants nationwide. This study examines service utilization and outcomes
from the first 7 years of the program.
Methods.
From August 2012 to July 2019, the Asian Smokers' Quitline enrolled 14,073
Chinese-, Korean-, and Vietnamese-speaking smokers. Service utilization rates and
cessation outcomes were compared with those of an earlier trial (conducted
2004-2008) that demonstrated the efficacy of an Asian-language telephone
counseling protocol. Data were analyzed in 2019.
Results.
Asian Smokers' Quitline participants came from all 50 states and the District
of Columbia. The main referral sources were Asian-language newspapers (37.2%),
family and friends (16.4%), healthcare providers (11.9%), and radio (11.9%).
Overall, 37.6% were uninsured, 38.8% had chronic health conditions, and 15.4%
had mental health conditions. Compared with participants in the earlier trial,
Quitline participants received 1 fewer counseling session (3.8 vs 4.9,
p<0.001) but were more likely to use pharmacotherapy (73.6% vs 20.9%,
p<0.001). More than 90% were satisfied with the services they received.
Six-month prolonged abstinence rates were higher in the Quitline than in the
trial (complete case analysis: 28.6% vs 20.0%, p<0.001; intention-to-treat
analysis: 20.5% vs 16.4%, p=0.005).
Conclusions.
The Asian Smokers' Quitline was utilized by >14,000 Asian-language-speaking
smokers across the U.S. in its first 7 years. This quitline could serve as a
model for delivering other behavioral services to geographically dispersed
linguistic minority populations.
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