More than 20 lakh Indians enrolled in quit tobacco initiative, says WHO
July 24 , 2017 2679 days 1454 0
The WHO has said more than 20 lakh people enrolled themselves in the first year of a quit- tobacco initiative of the Indian government. Considering the high interest in quitting among tobacco users, the government launched a bilingual country wide programme in January 2016, and a national toll-free quitline telephone number. Over a year more than 20 lakh people have registered their names.
An evaluation by the health ministry at the end of the programme’s first year, covering over 12,000 registered users, demonstrated an average quit rate of about 7% among both smokers and smokeless tobacco users.
One way to expand access is to use mobile technology to provide personalised tobacco cessation advice through text messaging. Such method has proved to be efficient and cost-effective.