Abstract
The Victorian Smoking and Health Program (VSHP) was established in 1985 to (1) determine the views of smokers making a quit attempt regarding the acceptability and usefulness of a novel self‐help smoking cessation device (the QUITZ pack), (2) define a potential market by determining the correlates of use of the QUITZ pack, and to (3) determine how the QUITZ pack compared to existing resources with proven acceptability and usefulness. Telephone interviews were conducted of 120 smokers who rang the QUITZ office for resources to help in a quit attempt. The results showed that most people found the QUITZ pack to be acceptable, both on first receiving it (68% acceptable) and after they had had the resource for at least a week (61 % acceptable). The QUITZ pack was used in some way by 58% of the people to whom it was sent. No significant associations were found between the use of the pack and any of the demographic, smoking history, or motivational factors examined. Around a third of smokers to whom it was sent rated the QUITZ pack as being either quite or very useful in their cessation attempt. Of those who reported using the QUITZ pack, 61% rated it as being quite or very useful. For those who used the pack and made a quit attempt, more respondents rated a self‐help guide (the CanQuit book) (87%) and any other personally chosen strategy (87%) as being quite or very useful, than rated any components of the QUITZ pack in this way. The authors conclude that although the QUITZ pack was acceptable and was rated as useful by those who used it, a substantial proportion of people did not use it at all. They were unable to identify the type of person who was more likely to use it, and existing resources were given higher usefulness ratings. It is difficult therefore to define adequately a market for the device. These findings led to a decision not to market the QUITZ pack.
Notes
Senior Behavioural Scientist, Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer.
Coordinator, Health Professional Program, Victorian Smoking and Health Program.