Moving Quitline Research Forward: Resources and Tools

Audience: Tobacco Control Program staff; Quitline funders, administrators, and operators; Researchers currently working with quitlines; tobacco control researchers; researchers in related fields such as health behavior change, health communications, psychology, chronic illness management, etc.

Key Points: In an effort to advance research on quitlines, the North American Quitline Consortium has recently produced two documents to facilitate collaborations between researchers and quitlines. The first is a Research Agenda for Quitlines, which is designed to provide criteria for developing and managing internally generated research (within the network of quitlines) as well as external requests for network participation, to develop a balanced research portfolio that meets the needs of the various stakeholder groups, and to leverage use of the Minimal Data Set for evaluating quitlines. The second is a Research Guide for Quitlines, which contains information for both researchers (about quitlines) and quitlines (about the research process) to facilitate the development of relationships and understanding between researchers and quitlines.

Educational Experience: The Research Agenda can be used to identify areas of common interest between the quitline community and other individuals and organizations. The Research Guide can serve as a starting point for discussion between quitlines and researchers at any point in the research process, but particularly as projects are in the development phase.

Benefits: Use of these resources and tools will improve the quality of relationships between quitlines and researchers, expand access to quitlines interested in participating in research studies, and enhance the likelihood of success for research studies.