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Free nicotine patch giveaway program 12-month follow-up of participants.

Cummings KM, Hyland A, Fix B, Bauer U, Celestino P, Carlin-Menter S, Miller N, Frieden TR

Department of Health Behavior, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, New York 14263, USA. Micheal.cummings@roswellpark.org

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the effectiveness of a free nicotine patch giveaway program offered to New York City (NYC) smokers conducted in 2003. METHODOLOGY: The effectiveness of the program was assessed by contrasting the 12-month quit rate of program participants with the quit rate from a group of Quitline callers who were not offered free nicotine patches. The follow-up surveys were conducted in 2004 and the analysis in 2005. RESULTS: The 7-day nonsmoking prevalence rate measured at 12 months among callers who received the nicotine patches was 1.78 times higher (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.19-2.66) than the quit rate among a comparable group of callers to the Quitline from NYC a year earlier who did not receive nicotine patches. CONCLUSIONS: The provision of free nicotine patches through a telephone quitline was effective in inducing a large number of smokers to make a quit attempt and stop smoking, above and beyond the efficacy of the quitline support alone.

Published 10 July 2006 in Am J Prev Med, 31(2): 181-4.
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