COMMUNITY CASE STUDY article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Substance Use Disorders and Behavioral Addictions
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1576541
Quitline Queensland: the journey to a globally unique smoking cessation service in Australia. Authors
Provisionally accepted
- 1Queensland Health, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
- 2Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
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Smoking cessation programs remain a core component of global efforts to reduce smoking and nicotine addiction. Telephone-based counselling, with or without the provision of nicotine replacement therapy, commonly referred to as Quitlines, has been a cornerstone of smoking cessation programs and they vary in scope and content and the populations they target. We describe the history, and structure of Quitline Queensland, Australia that was implemented in 1997. Quitline Queensland offers intensive quit support programs incorporating four weeks of telephone-based counselling, free nicotine replacement therapy mailed to participants and up to 12 months of follow-up. The program has evolved through a strong government commitment to, and support for, evidence-based solutions to reducing the burden of smoking in Queensland. Eligible cohorts have been identified by evidencebased reviews, equity considerations, trends in smoking prevalence and to address new challenges to smoking cessation such as vaping and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. New approaches to engaging and retaining smokers and delivering the program are being evaluated and implemented.
Keywords: Smoking Cessation, Quitline, nicotine replacement therapy, counselling, Queensland (Australia)
Received: 14 Feb 2025; Accepted: 19 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Isbel, Kennedy, West, O'Grady and Peardon-Freeman. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Kerry-Ann F O'Grady, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
Shelley Peardon-Freeman, Queensland Health, Brisbane, 4000, Queensland, Australia
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