National Media Campaign Increases Quitline Calls and Website Visits

This MMWR report highlights the increase in both calls to the national quitline portal and visits to the National Cancer Institute’s smoking cessation website by U.S. smokers during and following the recent CDC’s media campaign. Tips from Former Smokers (TIPS) Campaign provided graphic images of real smokers talking about living with diseases caused by smoking. Aimed at adult smokers aged 18-54, the campaign was designed to educate, with evidence-based information, about the health effects of smoking, to encourage smoking cessation, and to provide resources to get help in quitting. Calls to the quitlines increased 132% (207,519 additional calls) and visitors to the website increased 428% (510,571 additional visitors. These findings indicate that an evidence-based national tobacco education media campaign can provide substantial increase in sucessful outreach to smokers who are interested in quitting.

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