National Asian Language Tobacco Use and Dependence Treatment Support System

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Quitlines are one of the most accessible tobacco use and dependence treatment resources that can efficiently reach people who use tobacco. Telephone quitlines increase quit rates among individuals who use tobacco and are trying to quit, and are effective in reaching and supporting diverse and low-income populations. There are currently 12 quitline providers operating state quitlines in every state, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico. Advances in new digital-based quit support services (e.g., texting, chat, web, apps) show great promise in expanding the reach of the quitline to create state-based tobacco use and dependence treatment systems. Limited capacity to provide linguistically and culturally appropriate services may create barriers that contribute to tobacco-related disparities, especially among various subgroups of Asian Americans that speak Chinese (including Cantonese and Mandarin), Korean, and Vietnamese languages (CKV). Most state quitlines do not have staff with the needed language skills to provide in-language services to callers who speak CKV languages. Since October 2012, the Asian Smokers’ Quitline (ASQ) has been serving CKV-speaking populations nationally and has enrolled over 15,000 callers from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. CDC will provide continued support for a national Asian language quitline to complement the national portals 1-800-QUIT-NOW (transfers English-speaking callers to English-language services available through their state quitlines) and 1-855-DEJELO-YA (transfers Spanish-speaking callers to Spanish-language services available through their state quitlines). This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) supports one recipient to operate and promote a linguistically and culturally appropriate nationwide quitline service for individuals who use tobacco and who predominantly speak CKV languages.

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