Telephone helplines to encourage and offer support to smokers during their attempts to quit are a flexible and convenient method of providing advice to those seeking minimal assistance. Quitlines began as reactive lines, where the smoker initiates the call to a designated number to receive advice and information. Many now also offer proactive callback services, where a trained counsellor initiates the call to the smoker, in an attempt to provide more continuous care to those who are reluctant to seek face-to-face treatment.

Randomised trials of proactive services have found them to be effective in increasing quit rates. Descriptive …