Quitting tobacco through quitline services: impact in India

Tobacco quitline services offer telephone-based counseling to assist tobacco users in quitting through behavioral modification. It is a sponsored scheme by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. The present study has two objectives: primarily, to study the correlation between socio-demographic variables and tobacco abuse, and secondly, to study the impact of National Tobacco Quit-Line Services (NTQLS) in India. The data for the study was collected from the registered callers who have completed at least one year of follow-ups at NTQLS, Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute, University of Delhi, between May 2016 and May 2021. The questionnaire was directly administered to the people who had called NTQLS for the first time to quit tobacco use. Callers were provided one year of continuous follow-up to ensure they remain long-term abstinent from tobacco and permanently quit. All the data were managed through an electronic database. A total of 85,807 individuals’ data was taken for the study. The maximum number of callers were from Uttar Pradesh (28.03%), followed by Rajasthan (24.67%) and Madhya Pradesh (7.59%). The female population represented only 1.43%; the male population was significantly higher (98.57%). Youth (44.83%) and adults (53.78%) were more than seniors (0.9%) and adolescents (0.4%). Smokeless tobacco users (67.32%) were more common than smoking tobacco users (20.11%). Duration of tobacco use among the 71.74% of callers was found to be between 1 and 10 years; the remaining 24.03% had been using tobacco for over 10 years, while 4.23% were novice users. The abstinence rate achieved by NTQLS was 33.42% after one month of quitting and 21.91% after one year of quitting. We found a significant association between tobacco users’ socioeconomic and demographic status. The number of male tobacco users was significantly higher than the number of female tobacco users. Among all the tobacco users, youth was persistently using tobacco the most. Individuals from low socio-economic status were more likely to use tobacco as compared to those from high socioeconomic status. These associations indicate the need for strengthening the enforcement of tobacco control policies and developing and monitoring comprehensive smoke-free legislation.