title: Increasing the reach of quitlines through active telephone recruitment: do cold-called smokers differ from quitline callers?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Only 1%-7% of smokers use quitlines annually. Active telephone recruitment ("cold calling") can enroll about 50% of community smokers to quitline services. However, whether cold-called smokers' characteristics differ from traditional quitline clients is unknown. To assess whether active telephone recruitment reaches new groups of smokers, New South Wales (NSW) Quitline callers were compared with cold-called smokers who received telephone counseling as part of a randomized controlled trial.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were extracted from the NSW Quitline database from September 13, 2005, to April 10, 2007, to coincide with the trial's recruitment period. Records (n = 18,584) of first-time quitline callers, who smoked daily, resided in NSW, Australia, and received telephone counseling were included. Cold-called participants who received telephone counseling (n = 695) were recruited by telephone from the electronic NSW telephone directory. Eligibility requirements were daily tobacco use, aged 18 or older, NSW resident, and English speaking. Smokers were eligible regardless of their quitting intention.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Male smokers, older age groups, those living in nonmetropolitan areas, smokers who took longer to smoke their first cigarette after waking, consumed fewer cigarettes per day, and were less motivated to quit had greater odds of being referred to the quitline through cold calling.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Active telephone recruitment enrolls new groups of smokers to quitlines. The reach of quitlines could be improved if quitlines incorporated cold calling into their recruitment strategies.
authors.affiliation: Priority Research Centre for Health Behaviour, Faculty of Health, University of Newcastle & Hunter Medical Research Institute, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia. flora.tzelepis@newcastle.edu.au
authors.forename: Flora
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tzelepis
authors.forename: Christine L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Paul
authors.forename: Sarah L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Duncan
authors.forename: Raoul A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Walsh
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wiggers
authors.forename: Jenny
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Knight
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003376:Counseling / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D015277:Hotlines; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009517:New South Wales; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D013689:Telephone; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult