Motivations, Plans and Follow-through: What We've Learned about Quitting Tobacco in the Military from a Web-Based Quit Plan

Background:  Tobacco use continues to be a concern for the Department of Defense with tobacco use rates consistently higher than the civilian population. There is a 7% higher smoking rate and more than 3 times the smokeless tobacco use rate among the military population compared to the U.S. adult population.

Program background:  Quit Tobacco – UCanQuit2.org is the tobacco cessation and counter-marketing program for the U.S. military and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense.  Launched in 2007, the program’s mission is to help U.S. service members quit using tobacco with a target audience of the   highest percentage of tobacco users - junior enlisted, 18-24 year old, males. The Quit Tobacco program uses multiple tactics to reach our goals: awareness campaigns (social media, digital advertising, and targeted military television advertising), quit tools and resources (web/mobile tools), plus partnerships with military installations that further our reach and have the opportunity to interact in person with our target audience of service members. In 2015, we launched an interactive quit plan on our program website UCanQuit2.org. Ready2Quit (UCanQuit2.org/Ready2Quit) is a user-friendly, interactive quit plan that presents content in plain language, using active voice, short sentences and innovative tools to engage quitters with their quit plan. Ready2Quit was built using responsive design, making it available to all laptop, desktop, mobile and tablet users. On Ready2Quit, users begin by taking an assessment that determines their tobacco dependence and then continue on to think about their reasons to quit, tobacco triggers and how their lives will change once they quit. Users can then select their quit method(s), set their quit day and learn how to prepare to quit tobacco. Ready2Quit integrates other UCanQuit2.org resources (Live Chat, SmokefreeMIL, Support Locator, and Savings Calculator) into one tool. As a user navigates Ready2Quit, he is able to save choices to his profile, making a customized quit plan.

Evaluation Methods and Results:  Using Google Analytics and custom web reports from the Ready2Quit content management system, we are able to learn that the design and content have proven to attract and keep users engaged in creating their quit plan. About 50% of users who begin a quit plan will set a quit date. We launched Ready2Quit in July 2015 and are in the process of determining long- and short-term effectiveness. Additionally, through qualitative analysis of the leading self-reported reasons for quitting provided in the quit plan, we can determine if these leading motivations differ from other populations.

Conclusions:  By building an interactive, user- friendly quit plan that is successfully engaging our audience, we have provided both a useful tool for service members trying to quit and a way for us to learn more about their experience quitting.

Implications for research and/or practice:  Gaining a greater understanding of the process of quitting tobacco by members of our audience helps the Quit Tobacco – UCanQuit2.org program to better tailor our tools, resources and products to our audience. This knowledge also helps state and local tobacco cessation programs communicate with their local military audience, including veterans and members of the National Guard and Reserves.