Background: South Australian legislators sought to assess the likely impact of a policy decision to subsidise nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) for low–income smokers in terms of demand for NRT and quit rates achieved by adding NRT to Quitline services. This led to a randomised controlled trial of low-income smokers offering 12 weeks of Quitline counselling (control arm) or 12 weeks of Quitline counselling plus subsidised NRT.

Method: Residents in low socioeconomic areas of South Australia were “cold-mailed” invitations to participate in the trial in October-December 2005. Randomisation occurred at the time of mail out, and invitations to participate were distributed in equal numbers. NRT was offered via 10 vouchers redeemed weekly at chemists. Study participants were followed at 3, 6 and 12 months.

Results: Interest in the intervention arm (n=1000) far outweighed the control arm (n=377). The intervention group used 4.9 vouchers on average, and 88.8% used NRT. Participants received 6 callbacks on average. Point prevalence quit rates were significantly higher among the intervention group at 3 months (39.7% versus 25.7%) and 6 months (30.9% versus 21.2%). Quit rates at 12 months will be presented along with results on cost per quitter.

Conclusions: Implications: Interest continues in determining the impact of NRT on smoking cessation in real-world settings, and on smoking cessation interventions for disadvantaged groups. Policy implications will be discussed in terms of the cost as well as the potential to recruit new groups of smokers.