Best Practice

“One Tiny Reason to Quit” Smoking Cessation Campaign

State/Jurisdiction: National Virginia
Setting: Community
Population: Women & Maternal
Topic Area: Telehealth Health Promotion & Communication Mental Health & Substance Use
NPMs: NPM 14.1: Smoking – Pregnancy

It's unrealistic to expect that a media campaign could overcome nicotine addiction, but a compelling campaign message can motivate an easy 1-time behavior like calling a smoking cessation quitline. If a pregnant woman makes that first call, quitline staff will keep in touch with her proactively. This free quitline service -- already available nationwide – can be effective in supporting smoking cessation among pregnant women. To prompt pregnant women to call 1-800-QUITNOW, the One Tiny Reason to Quit campaign used a Social Marketing approach because Social Marketing relies on insights from audience research and can reach audiences who may not be in medical care. One Tiny Reason to Quit was mounted twice in Richmond, Virginia (in 2009 and 2011) where infant mortality among African Americans was 3-4 times higher than among whites. Although pregnant African American women were the intended audience, Quitline calls from all pregnant women increased significantly in the geographic area reached by the campaign during both campaign rounds. In 2018, the campaign was replicated statewide in Louisiana, where social media and other at-risk audiences were added. In that replication, digital ads had a view rate of over 600,000 impressions and radio ads, played 144 times, reached more than 25,000 listeners each time.


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Implementation Handout
Journal of Women's Health
Operations Manual

CONTACT INFORMATION
Virginia Commonwealth University Center for Health Disparities
May G. Kennedy, PhD, MPH
mgkennedy@vcu.edu
(404) 931-9936
Practice Website
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