The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: Fifth 'Quit & Win in 2002 which was held by WHO and KTL in Finland helps people from all over the world try to abstain from smoking or using tobacco products for a four-week period, from 2-29 May. This follow-up study aimed to evaluate the maintenance of the abstinence from smoking among the participants in Quit and Win 2002 in Turkey.

Methods: A random sample of 1100 registrants surveyed one year after the campaign, according to the internationally agreed rules among 98,845 registrants. The follow-up questionnaires sent to the provincial health directorates, personnel of mental health department of provincial health directorates and nurses or midwifes from health centers or health posts questioned the samples by telephone or face to face.

Results: Response rate was 66.9 %. Of the respondents 77 % were male, 78,4 % were between 25-54 year age group, 80.1 % smoke more than 15 + cigarettes per day, 61,4 had tired to quit smoking 1-3 + times, 74 % had been smoking 10-20+ years. 89 % of the respondents had the intention of quitting smoking completely when entering the Quit and Win. Most of the respondents (87.6 %) did not use nicotine replacement therapy or any special measures during the campaign. The one month abstinence and one year complete abstinence rate was 73.5 % and 44,7 %. The international "Quit and Win" campaign may be considered as a methodology to reach out a great number of smokers and at a much lower cost than other smoking cessation methods.