Mayo Clinic Tobacco Quitline Offers Stop-Smoking Help over the Phone

Tuesday, April 04, 2000

ROCHESTER, MINN. — Businesses are interested in more cost-effective healthcare for their employees. Mayo Clinic is interested in more cost-effective ways to help people stop smoking. These two interests have come together in a new program called the Tobacco Quitline — tobacco cessation counseling delivered over the telephone.

The Tobacco Quitline was developed in conjunction with the Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence Center and is now an option available for employer groups through Mayo Management Services, Inc. MMSI designs, implements and administers medical benefit management services and products for companies around the country. General Mills and Mayo Health Plan Arizona are among the groups who are benefiting from the Tobacco Quitline.

For smokers who want to quit the program offers access to specially trained interventionists via a toll-free number. Interventionists assess each caller's situation and develop an individualized plan to help the caller stop smoking. The caller also receives counseling during follow-up calls. Additionally, nurses are available 24 hours a day to help assess symptoms that are related to nicotine withdrawal.

"Quitting smoking is one of the healthiest actions a person can take," says Richard Hurt, M.D., director of the Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence Center. "It prolongs your life and reduces the risks of many diseases, not just for the smoker but for family members as well."

Research shows that smoking cessation also is good for workplaces. Employees who smoke have higher healthcare costs, higher absenteeism rates and are less productive.

"We know from research that smokers who get professional help are much more likely to be successful in quitting than people who try to stop on their own," says Dr. Hurt. "A telephone system makes getting help convenient and low cost, and will help a lot more people become smoke free."

More than 20,000 smokers have been treated by Mayo Clinic's Nicotine Dependence Center. The center has developed several smoking cessation techniques over the past decade, most of which rely on one-on-one counseling. The Tobacco Quitline interventionists are specially trained by the Nicotine Dependence Center in these proven methods and are able to utilize them via the telephone. ### Mike O'Hara 507-284-9522 (days) 507-284-2511 (evenings) e-mail: newsbureau@mayo.edu

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