A longitudinal analysis of factors contributing to long-term abstinence from cigarettes among Oklahoma Tobacco Helpline participants

Background and objective: Reductions in tobacco use prevalence could have a major impact on the public's health and potentially on healthcare costs. Telephone counseling for tobacco cessation has emerged as an effective smoking cessation intervention. Identifying factors associated with abstinence can help program planners modify programs to be more effective. The goal of this study was to identify factors associated longitudinally with 30-day abstinence at the 4- and 7-month follow-up among smokers who participated in the multiple call intervention of the Oklahoma Tobacco Helpline (OTH).

Methods: General Estimating Equation (GEE) longitudinal techniques were used to evaluate 30-day abstinence at 4-months and 7-months post-registration among OTH multiple call program participants who registered between March 2005 and May 2006. These techniques were used to identify factors associated with the outcome and to develop a model to estimate 30-day abstinence.

Results: The GEE techniques identified OTH provision of NRT, Hispanic ethnicity, time to first cigarette of the day, the number of completed intervention calls, and non-smoking home policy as factors that were associated with 30-day abstinence at 4-months and 7-months post-registration. Ten other factors were assessed and found not to be associated longitudinally with 30-day abstinence.

Conclusions: The provision of NRT and the number of completed calls may be important program planning factors for quitlines that were associated with 30-day abstinence. And non-smoking home policies may need to be emphasized more by quitline coaches to improve quit rates among participants.