Roll-your-own smokers and quitting through the Quitline

Judy Li, MSc

Researcher

The Quit Group

The New Zealand Quitline

The Quitline offers

• Brief advice on quitting over the phone

• Written material on quitting

• Heavily subsidised nicotine patches and gum

The Quitline evaluation

• Cohort study of 2,002 Quitline callers

• Interviews at 3 weeks, 6 months and 12 months

• Data on demographic and smoking characteristics, and quitting outcomes

• Data weighted by ethnicity and gender

Aims of analysis

1. Who uses roll-your-own tobacco, tailor-made cigarettes, or mixed?

2. Do Quitline callers who smoke different types of tobacco, have different quitting outcomes?

Type of tobacco

• Mixed – 9%

• Roll-your-own tobacco (RYO) only – 39%

• Tailor-made cigarettes (TM) only – 52%

Gender & ethnicity

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Female Male

TM (%)Mixed (%) RYO (%)

01020304050607080

Māori non Māori

Age & Marital Status

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

15-19 20-24 25-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60+

010203040

50607080

Married/ living withpartner

Separated/divorced/ widowed

Never married

TM (%)Mixed (%) RYO (%)

Employment status & income

TM (%)Mixed (%) RYO (%)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

0

10

20

30

40

50

<$20,000 $20,000 - $39,999

$40,000 or over

Qualification & years been smoking

0

10

20

30

40

50

Nosecondary

school

Secondaryschool

National/trade

certificate

Tertiary

TM (%)Mixed (%) RYO (%)

010203040506070

<5 years 5-14 years 15+ years

First cigarette of a day & number of cigarette per day

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

>=30 minutes after waking < 30 minutes after waking

TM (%)Mixed (%) RYO (%)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

<10 10-19 20+

Outcome measures

• Logistic regression model

• Dependent variables– 7 day point prevalence quit at 6 months– 7 day point prevalence quit at 12 months

• Intention-to-treat approach

7 day point prevalence quit at 6 months

• Significant = age, gender, ethnicity, income, employment status, marital status, type of tobacco, first cigarette of a day and number of cigarettes

• Not significant = qualifications and years been smoking

7 day point prevalence quit at 6 months

Māori non Māori

0.00

0.10

0.20

0.30

0.40

0.50

0.60

0.70

Mixed RYO TM

7 day point prevalence quit at 12 months

• Significant = age, gender, ethnicity, income, qualifications, employment status, marital status, type of tobacco, first cigarette of a day, number of cigarettes and years been smoking

7 day point prevalence quit at 12 months

Māori non Māori

0.00

0.100.20

0.300.40

0.50

0.600.70

0.800.90

1.00

Mixed RYO TM

Tobacco type & ethnicity

• No significant associations with quit rate and tobacco type (after adj.)

• Although Māori have consistently lower quit rates

• No significant associations with quitting outcomes and ethnicity (after adj.)

Discussion

• RYO, TM and mixed tobacco is appealing to different smokers

• Tobacco type and ethnicity do not explain significant variation in quit rate

• Future research

Acknowledgements

• Li-Chia Yeh and Craig Wright, Ministry of Health

• Ministry of Health

• BRC Marketing & Social Research – Evaluation Team

• Quitline callers who agreed to be interviewed as part of this evaluation

Roll-your-own smokers and quitting through the Quitline

Judy Li, MSc

Researcher

The Quit Group

judy.li@quit.org.nz