Chapter ten
uit and Win is a smoking cessation competition for adults. It
has been arranged internationally twice--in 1994 and 1996--by
a network that originally was based in the WHO CINDI (Country-wide
Integrated Non-Communicable Diseases Intervention) programme in
Europe. In 1996 Quit and Win gathered almost 70,000 participants
in 25 countries. The next international Quit and Win will take
place in May 1998.
The National Public Health Institute in Finland (KTL) has coordinated the international competitions. In the next effort KTL and the Finnish Centre for Health Promotion will share the coordinating work. The 1998 contest will be supported by the European Union.
National Quit and Win competitions are arranged independently--as a nationwide campaign, as a regional activity or as a combination of both--but simultaneously and with common rules and follow-up procedures. Each country has the same quit date, and the winners are drawn after an abstinence period of four weeks. Two witnesses and a biological test are used to verify the information given by the participant. After the national winners have been chosen, lots are drawn among them for an international super-prize.
From the point of view of an individual smoker the Quit and Win is an opportunity that provides incentive and support for giving up smoking. For the organizers it is an opportunity of a different sort: a chance for coalition building, for gaining recognition to own activities, for generating publicity to smoking related questions and for recruiting smokers to quit, of course.
'Smokefree Finland'--a network of organizations coordinated by the Finnish Centre for Health Promotion arranged the Quit and Win this year (1997) and more than doubled the amount of participants (1,6% of smokers, 16,000 participants). Our idea is to establish the contest as a permanent part of the Spring; to create a sense of a smoke-free May. The aim is to make it connected to quitting smoking the same way the New Year is, to provide the smokers a second chance.
The highest participation rates in any Quit and Win contests have been reached in areas where national activities are supported by regional or local intervention. In 1996 in the province of North Karelia in Finland 2% of smokers participated in the Quit and Win due to the activities of the Smoke-free North Karelia project.
The success rates in the Quit and Win contests seem surprisingly similar from country to country, independent of the smoking prevalence rates and their present trends. A standardised one year follow-up survey of each year's participants will be conducted each successive year. Based on some previous studies however, some 15% to 20% of the registrants are expected to have remained smoke-free the whole year (a cautious estimate: non-respondents are considered to have relapsed).
The next chance is in 1998 and it will be conducted along the lines of previous contests. If your organization is interested to arrange the international Quit and Win in your country, please contact: