Background: A previous study suggested the demographic and smoking characteristics of New Zealand Quitline callers changed significantly between 2001 and 2005. A study to update information on the representativeness of Quitline callers to the overall smoking population is timely. The latest Census collected data on smoking status, which contains valuable data on the characteristics and geographic representation of the overall smoking population in the country. Using the data from Census 2006 and the Quitline database, this study aimed to establish if Quitline callers are representative of the general smoking population.

Method: Information on callers who were first registered to the Quitline during 2006 were extracted from the database. This will be compared against the smoking-related data to be released from the Census 2006.

Results: A previous study found that Quitline callers are generally becoming younger. There is also a significant increase in Pacific callers and roll-your-own smokers. Analysis will commence once the data becomes available, and results will be presented at the conference.

Conclusions: Conclusions will be presented at the conference.

Implications: The results will show the representativeness of Quitline callers compared with the general smoking population. Smoking cessation service providers could use this information to identify the characteristics of smokers who are not currently using the telephone-based service offered by the Quitline, and to assist both with promotion of current services and possibly to develop alternative services such as face-to-face intervention, web-based or text-messaging-based services that may appeal more to those smokers.