Typically less restrictive definitions increase sensitivity (i.e., decrease false negatives) but decrease specificity (i.e., increase false positives). Studies comparing the specificity and sensitivity of promotion the ability of the two definitions to predict later cessation are needed. Finally, one possible rationale for the 24-hr quit attempt definition was to eliminate ��nonserious�� or ��low-motivation�� quit attempts; thus, studies comparing the a priori ��motivation,�� ��seriousness,�� etc., of quit attempts that did versus did not last <24 hr are needed. Funding U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (Senior Scientist Award, "type":"entrez-nucleotide","attrs":"text":"DA000490","term_id":"79168351"DA000490). Declaration of Interests In the last 3 years, Dr Hughes has received research grants from the U.

S. National Institutes of Health and Pfizer Pharmaceuticals. He has received consulting and speaking fees from multiple governmental, nonprofit, and for-profit organizations or companies that develop, sell, or promote smoking cessation products and services. Dr Callas has no disclosures. Acknowledgments We thank Anne Hartman for help with these analyses.
Quitlines are an effective smoking cessation intervention, as detailed in a systematic review (Stead, Perera, & Lancaster, 2006). There is some evidence around quitline usage by different ethnic and socioeconomic groups. For example, a Californian study found overrepresentation by higher educated smokers and also Black callers but underrepresentation of Hispanic and Asian American and Pacific Islander callers (Zhu, Anderson, Johnson, Tedeschi, & Roeseler, 2000).

Another study, in Washington state, reported that utilization did not appear to vary by educational level and by ethnicity except for lower use by the Asian/Pacific Islander population (Maher et al., 2007). A study in Maine reported that callers Brefeldin_A were more likely to be uninsured (Swartz, Cowan, Klayman, Welton, & Leonard, 2005). There is also favorable evidence around quitline use and Alaskan Native peoples (Boles et al., 2009) and Canadian aboriginal peoples (Hayward, Campbell, & Sutherland-Brown, 2007). New Zealand (NZ) has a national toll-free quitting support service ��Quitline�� with evaluations of it showing that it is effective at achieving quitting (The Quit Group, 2009) and is relatively cost-effective (O��Dea, 2004). This service also makes attempts to attract M��ori (the indigenous people of NZ) and socioeconomically disadvantaged smokers. M��ori in particular have very high smoking prevalences and are specifically a priority audience in the national tobacco control plan for smoking cessation support (Ministry of Health, 2004).