THE "STOP SMOKING TOGETHER" CAMPAIGN IN POLAND

SS 16.00-17.30 Special sessions

THE "STOP SMOKING TOGETHER" CAMPAIGN IN POLAND

AUTHORS: K Przewozniak, J M Jaworski, W Zatonski
INSTITUTION: Department of Epidemiology and Cancer Prevention, Maria Sklodowska-Curie Memorial Cancer Centre and Institute of Oncology, Poland

The "Stop Smoking Together" health campaign is organised in Poland every year since 1992. Its culmination is International No-Smoking Day, initiated by the International Union Against Cancer. The main purpose of this nation-wide campaign is encouraging as many smokers as possible to abstain from smoking for at least one day. The idea of the campaign refers to the Great American Smoke-Out, begun in the 1970s in the USA.

Tying in with the presidential elections in 1995, the health campaign in the past year was headed by the motto , "Elections 95: To Smoke or Not to Smoke". The campaign included: (1) a nation-wide mass media campaign. (2)"Quit and Win" contests for people who declared they wanted to quit; (3) contests for children and youth; (4)addiction counselling and telephone quitlines; (5) national and international training seminars; (6) meetings, events, festivals organised for children; (7) effectiveness monitoring of intervention activities.

Nation-wide population surveys show that this health campaign is one of the most effective and most popular actions for health promotion in Poland. In 1995, 87% adult Poles (27 million) heard about it from television, radio, or press. 2.7 million smokers tried to quit smoking as a result of the campaign, of which 300 000 were successful.

Smoke Free Europe Conference Abstracts - 19 SEP 1996

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