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NICE Underpinning Review
This review contains assessments of the available evidence on the impact of quitlines on smoking cessation. A comprehensive literature search was conducted and a total of 984 titles and abstracts were screened, with 32 studies identified as direct evidence.
The quality of evidence on the impact of quitlines on smoking cessation is reasonably high, and a number of controlled studies exist exploring the effectiveness of telephone counselling on smoking cessation amongst the general population and specific population subgroups. Two 1+ American studies found that reactive quitlines improved abstinence rates over the distribution of self-help materials alone. Supplementary evidence from three 2+ studies also supports the effectiveness of reactive telephone quitlines, as all studies report 12-month abstinence rates of between 8.2% to 15.6%. There is also a consistent body of evidence from a 1++ Cochrane Review and two 1+ meta-analyses that proactive telephone counselling has a modest effect on smoking cessation – whether this counselling occurs in the context of a quitline or not.