Tobacco Quitline Centre

TOBACCO QUITLINE CENTRE

Awareness program by Tobacco Quit Line Team at Mantralay on the ocassion of “World No Tobacco Day

Oral cancer screening and tobacco cessation counselling program conducted at CSMT and Dadar station

Room Number 225,

Centre for Cancer Epidemiology (CCE) – ACTREC,

Tata Memorial Centre (TMC)

Kharghar – 410 210

Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra,

India

TQL Number: 1800-11-2356

Objective

To provide effective counselling to the tobacco users that enables them to quit the tobacco through toll-free number 1800-11-2356.
To study the determinants of tobacco users who wanted to quit the tobacco.

Summary

Tobacco Quit Line (TQL) Centre was inaugurated on 2nd Feb 2019. The objective of the project is to provide effective counseling to tobacco users and enable them to quit tobacco through a toll-free number 1800-11-2356.
Quitline services are available in Marathi, English, Hindi, and Gujarati language.
For the first six months, we had only 4 operating desks; while, in the second half, we had 8 desks working for both morning and evening shifts. From June 2019, a total of 16 counselors and 2 supervisors are working in two shifts.
In the year 2020, 155,652 calls hit the system; after excluding inquiry calls and not attended calls, the total calls received were 42,053.

Of the total received 42,053 calls, the quit date was set for 12,276 (29.2%) people. Of the total quit date set 3,373 (27.5%) are quitters.
We have received maximum calls from the states including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh.
In the year 2020, the counselors made a total of 84,487 follow-up calls, out of which 48,561 (57.4%) calls were answered by the clients.
Out of total quitters, 85.4% consume smokeless tobacco.
Of those who agreed to quit, one out of four people quit tobacco because of telephone counseling.
The total number of quitters has decreased compared to 2019, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown.
We have received positive feedback from the quitters. They are happy and they feel their health is improving.
There are many hurdles in running the TQL services including technical errors in Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) Line, software issues, and server issues.
TQL service has also organized tobacco awareness programs in public places to spread awareness.
TQL service plays an important role in the tobacco control program of the country.

Contributors

TOBACCO QUITLINE CENTRE