International Quit and Win 1996: Standardized evaluation in selected campaign countries

Background. Quit and Win '96 recruited 70,000 smokers in 25 countries. The participants tried to abstain from smoking for at least 4 weeks. All partic ipating countries followed the jointly agreed rules. Half of the countries implemented the campaign nationally and half, regionally. Methods. A 1-year follow-up study was conducted in the participating countr ies. The aim of this study was to provide a standardized evaluation based o n data from eight European campaign sites. Three measures were used to eval uate the effectiveness of the campaigns. The first measure was the particip ation rate, which is the proportion of participants among the smoking popul ation targeted in each site. The second measure was a cautious estimate for the continuous 1-year abstinence rate, which is the proportion of abstaine rs among the follow-up sample regarding all nonrespondents as relapsed. Thi rd was the measure of the population impact, which is the efficacy of the i ntervention multiplied by its reach, where the efficacy equals the abstinen ce rate and the reach equals the participation rate. Results. The participation rates varied from 0.1 to 2%, being highest in No rth Karelia, Finland, and Pitbkaranta, Russia. The abstinence rates varied from 12 to 35%, being highest in Hungary, Ukraine, and Russia, where the pr evalence of smoking is also relatively high. The population impacts varied from 0.02 to 0.5%, being highest in Pitkaranta, where both the reach and th e efficacy of the Quit and Win were relatively high. Conclusions. There was great variation in effectiveness, with population im pact being affected more by participation rate than abstinence rate. Quit a nd Win contests are feasible interventions in diverse European populations. To improve the effectiveness, future campaigns should increase the reach o f the intervention, (C) 2000 American Health Foundation and Academic Press.