Increasing Tobacco Quitline Calls from Pregnant African American Women: The “One Tiny Reason to Quit” Social Marketing Campaign

Abstract

Introduction: Pregnant African American women are at disproportionately high risk of premature birth and infant mortality, outcomes associated with cigarette smoking. Telephone-based, individual smoking cessation counseling has been shown to result in successful quit attempts in the general population and among pregnant women, but ''quitlines'' are underutilized. A social marketing campaign called One Tiny Reason to Quit (OTRTQ) promoted calling a quitline (1-800-QUIT-NOW) to pregnant, African American women in Richmond, Virginia, in 2009 and was replicated there 2 years later. Methods: The campaign disseminated messages via radio, interior bus ads, posters, newspaper ads, and billboards. Trained volunteers also delivered messages face-to-face and distributed branded give-away reminder items. The number of calls made from pregnant women in the Richmond area during summer 2009 was contrasted with (a) the number of calls during the seasons immediately before and after the campaign, and (b) the number of calls the previous summer. The replication used the same evaluation design. Results: There were statistically significant spikes in calls from pregnant women during both campaign waves for both types of contrasts. A higher proportion of the calls from pregnant women were from African Americans during the campaign. Conclusion: A multimodal quitline promotion like OTRTQ should be considered for geographic areas with sizable African American populations and high rates of infant mortality.

Substance Use in the Perinatal Period

“…More recent interventions for perinatal tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure range from an indoor smoking ordinance [64], to nurse home visitation [65], a social marketing campaign [66], brief feedback regarding urinary cotinine results [67], and text messaging and smartphone interventions [68]. We are currently conducting a randomized control trial to examine the utility of oral micronized progesterone as an intervention to prevent smoking relapse in postpartum women (NCT01972464, ClinicalTrials.gov).…”

Evaluation of a federally funded mass media campaign and smoking cessation in pregnant women: a population-based study in three states

“…A smaller social marketing campaign targeting African American women called ‘One Tiny Reason to Quit’ promoted the use of quitlines to pregnant women in Richmond, Virginia. 27 Postcampaign quitline calls from pregnant women increased significantly compared with precampaign calls, but again, effects on cessation rates were not assessed. 27 A mass media campaign conducted in 1994 throughout England targeting pregnant women resulted in a 14% increase in calls to quitlines from pregnant women, but no significant changes in prenatal smoking prevalence were documented.…”

“… 27 Postcampaign quitline calls from pregnant women increased significantly compared with precampaign calls, but again, effects on cessation rates were not assessed. 27 A mass media campaign conducted in 1994 throughout England targeting pregnant women resulted in a 14% increase in calls to quitlines from pregnant women, but no significant changes in prenatal smoking prevalence were documented. 28 Findings from the current study indicate that a graphic anti-smoking campaign developed for a general audience could also increase cessation rates among pregnant women.…”

The African American Women and Mass Media (AAMM) campaign in Georgia: quantifying community response to a CDC pilot campaign

“…Our results show that the AAMM pilot campaign can reach and promote breast cancer awareness and mammogram utilization with underserved audiences. Most importantly, our findings indicate that Black radio is an important communication channel in African American communities [30–32] and valuable, particularly when used in conjunction with other communication channels, to contribute to desired behavior change [33] and may impact elimination of cancer disparities in vulnerable populations. The approach, if scaled-up and sustained in communities, shows promise to motivate mammography usage and ultimately may be effective in contributing to a reduction in breast cancer disparities and mortality among low-income, African American women.…”