Welcome to the June 2008 QuitChat

In this issue:

Text-based quitting support launched

Youth-specific, free and automated

This month we are launching a new texting service to help young smokers throughout New Zealand who want to quit smoking.

Txt2Quit is a twenty six week, fully automated free support programme. It is designed for 16 - 24 year olds, but the service will also be available to anyone who wants to quit with text support.

More than a quarter of 15-19 year olds smoke but research shows that most young people wish they had never started and that they want to quit.

Most young people own mobile phones and Txt2Quit offers support wherever they are and whenever they need it. A great thing about this service is that people will be able to text for extra support if they slip up or experience cravings.

Low-cost government-subsidised nicotine patches and gum will be an option for people using Txt2Quit and will cost them $10-20 for an eight-week supply. People registering for Txt2Quit will also be provided with free written support resources, including a wallet guide.

Young smokers are already using the Quitline and web quitting services to get help to stop smoking and Txt2Quit gives them another option.

Clients can register through www.txt2quit.org.nz but the Quitline 0800 778 778 is also taking registrations from people without internet access.

Helen Glasgow
Executive Director

World Smokefree Day celebration in Otara

The shopping centre in Otara celebrated with a smokefree event organised in part by Smokefree Pasifika Action Network (SPAN). Otara follows Mangere shopping centre which went smokefree two years ago.

On the day local cessation providers sat side-by-side to provide quit smoking support and assessment and gave out Quit Cards. Over 30 people keen to quit registered with them in just two hours!

Smokefree contacts map

Get listed for free on the Smokefree contacts map today

The Smokefree contacts map has been live for a month now and has over 200 services listed on it which have been viewed by 2000 visitors.

The map is designed to be a central listing of sector services that can be used by people looking for tobacco control services.

Have a look and get listed if you work in tobacco control or provide a related service or programme.

To get listed, visit www.smokefreecontacts.org.nz/get-listed/

New TV ads show "It's not worth it eh?"

The Ministry of Health has been working with us to develop a new media campaign: "It's not worth it eh?" linked to the health warnings now on cigarette packs.

The new advertisements feature Adrian, an Auckland man, who has had surgery to remove cancer in his tongue and has now been told he has 6-12 months to live. The series of six advertisements show his poor quality of life.

As well as directing people to the Quitline and www.quit.org.nz, the ads encourage people to talk to their health professional about quitting. This is part of the Ministry of Health's efforts to have every health professional offering smoking cessation support to their patients.

The Quit Group research team is currently evaluating this campaign for the Ministry of Health. Approximately 500 current smokers and recent quitters were interviewed over the phone in May, and another sample of 500 smokers and recent quitters will be recruited in September. The study will tell us how smokers and ex-smokers perceive and respond to the campaign, and the extent it motivates current smokers to quit smoking.

Lozenge here by year's end

A nicotine lozenge will be available by the end of the year to join patches and gum as another option for people wishing to double their chances of quitting by using NRT.

How to for NRT assessment online

A simple guide to NRT choices and filling out Quit Cards recently arrived in the post boxes of doctors, midwives, dentists and other health professionals. It's also available as a PDF on our website: http://www.quit.org.nz/file/quitcards/QC_FlowChart.pdf.

Making low-cost NRT available through over 20,000 health professionals early this year had an unfortunate consequence of more quitters turning up to pharmacies with unredeemable Quit Cards due to them being filled in incorrectly.

Auckland patients getting more support to kick the habit

Since early 2006, wards at Auckland City Hospital have implemented a smoking assessment programme to provide patients who smoke with assessment, quit smoking advice, and referral to cessation support after a hospital stay.

At first, all patients keen to quit were referred to the hospital's smoking cessation specialist.

A formal partnership between Quitline and Auckland DHB for the Quitline to also offer ongoing support has been available to patients since the end of 2006. In this time, over 100 people have been referred to the Quitline for ongoing support. At least 600 patients have been referred for ongoing support from either the cessation specialist or the Quitline.

There are a number of advantages to hospitals adopting these kinds of programmes:

  • Many patients have experienced a serious health issue which causes them to evaluate their lifestyle making them more likely to accept a referral for ongoing support
  • Minimal training is required to implement these programmes - at least one nurse needs Quit Card Provider training, and all other nurses can receive brief training from the Smokefree Coordinator or smoking cessation specialist
  • The hospital stay means a patient gets a chance to try nicotine replacement therapy, learn about how to use it, and develop a quit plan before returning home.

Evaluation results of the programme will be available later this year.

For further information, please contact Judy Hutton (judy.hutton@quit.org.nz) or Jan Marshall, Smokefree Coordinator (jan@adhb.govt.nz).

Latest round of visits to doctors complete

The Quit Group has just completed annual visits to the priority DHB areas of Tairawhiti, Northland, Lakes and Whanganui to provide updates to medical professionals.

The purpose of the annual programme is to share the latest in cessation information and what The Quit Group is doing with doctors during their regularly scheduled meetings.

"This year we focused on the cessation guidelines and the implications of the widening of access to NRT," said The Quit Group Services Manager Judy Hutton.

Calls to the Quitline

July 2005 – April 2008

Total and NRT Online registrations to the Quitline

Note: the large increase in registrations during October 2007 is due to the introduction of ordering NRT online.

Quitline caller registrations by DHB region

(January – March 2008)

DHB January February March Total
Northland 124 197 118 439
Waitemata 422 444 323 1,189
Auckland 350 403 288 1,041
Counties Manukau 342 492 321 1,155
Waikato 334 438 313 1,085
Bay of Plenty 195 253 157 605
Lakes 110 132 94 336
Tairawhiti 34 41 31 106
Taranaki 89 134 84 307
Hawke's Bay 186 213 144 543
Whanganui 56 76 54 186
MidCentral 151 195 142 488
Wairarapa 36 36 17 89
Capital and Coast 260 320 222 802
Hutt Valley 160 190 101 451
Nelson Marlborough 90 134 73 297
West Coast 21 35 29 85
Canterbury 418 514 359 1,291
South Canterbury 54 52 34 140
Otago 191 241 189 621
Southland 70 129 72 271
Not defined 30 36 95 161
TOTAL 3,723 4,705 3,260 11,688

Pacific Advisor takes up health opportunity

The Quit Group's Pacific Services Advisor Linda Tasi has been selected and will be completing the Pacific Health Leadership Development course sponsored by the Ministry of Health.

The course, which includes three residential workshops, is part of the post-graduate Health Sciences programme at Canterbury University.

Blogs offer another type of quitting support

The quit.org.nz online community is growing rapidly with blogs and ordering NRT online some of the most popular pages.

There are now over 4600 online community members and 3200 blog posts. The community is growing fast with over 500 new clients in the last month which compares to 30 per month when the service started in 2006.

The blogs work well as way for people to talk about how their quit attempt is going and get support from others who have the same feelings.

Research briefs

Quit smoking and your kids won't smoke

A major determining factor of childrens tobacco use is the smoking status of their parents. If both parents of a child never smoked, research shows that a child's odds of daily smoking are reduced by more than 70 percent compared to when both parents continue to smoke. If both parents were smokers but quit, odds are reduced by nearly 40 percent. Mothers who quit are less likely to have children who start smoking.

Find out more at www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/109050.php

30 minutes of passive smoke causes changes in arteries

People regularly exposed to passive smoke run a cardiovascular risk almost as high as those who smoke. Second hand smoke leads to 30 percent increased risk of cardiovascular disease for non-smokers.

But the most alarming factor is the speed with which passive smoking damages the cardiovascular apparatus. Thirty minutes of exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke produces observable change in the arterial function of non-smokers.

Find out more at www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/107923.php

Staff get bonus to quit smoking

A UK firm will pay £1,250 to workers who remain smoke-free until 31 December and will donate the same amount per employee to cancer research.

Find out more at
http://latestnews.virginmedia.com/news/health/2008/05/28/staff_offered_bonus_to_quit_smoking