• The 7-month quit rate among smokers in the U.S. averages 29.0%. The rate is usually slightly higher among New Mexicans (about 32.0%).
• Tracking quit rates at 7-month follow-up is important in measuring the effectiveness of cessation services and support.
• The FY17 tobacco quit rate for New Mexicans using QUIT NOW services was 32.0%, which is slightly less than the target of 33.0%. 
• Cigarette smoking is especially high among people experiencing poverty, and they represent a significant portion (over two-thirds) of those enrolling in cessation services.
• The Tobacco Use Prevention and Control (TUPAC) Program’s experience with enhanced national promotion of QUIT NOW, and its effect on New Mexico services last year, resulted in closer monitoring and coordination of local promotion efforts to ensure stable use and ongoing availability of services through the full 2017 fiscal year.
• The TUPAC Program reviewed FY17 evaluation findings to identify strengths and areas for improvement in 7-month quit rates among selected priority population groups.

• Optum Health (tobacco cessation services provider)
• Media Matched (media contractor)
• TUPAC evaluation team
• TUPAC statewide contractor
• Health care providers

The Guide to Community Preventive Services recommends the following interventions to reduce adult smoking:

• Increasing the unit price of tobacco products;
• Mass media campaigns when combined with other interventions;
• Multi-component cessation interventions that include telephone support;
• Health care provider reminder systems for tobacco cessation;
• Reducing client out-of-pocket costs for cessation therapies (e.g., counseling, nicotine patches, gum, lozenges)
• Smoke-free policies to reduce tobacco use.

• Develop and implement a Health Systems Change Training and Outreach Program for Tobacco Use with NM Community Health Centers (CHCs) to increase CHCs’ and their providers’ ability to consistently identify tobacco users;
• Advise tobacco users to quit and refer those ready to make a quit attempt to appropriate treatment resources.

• Q1: 33% of QUIT NOW enrollees successfully quit using tobacco at their 7-month follow-up. Exceeded. 33.7%.
• Q2: 33% of QUIT NOW enrollees successfully quit using tobacco at their 7-month follow-up. Not met. 26.1%.
• Q3: 33% of QUIT NOW enrollees successfully quit using tobacco at their 7-month follow-up. Exceeded. 35.% 
• Q4: 33% of QUIT NOW enrollees successfully quit using tobacco at their 7-month follow-up. Exceeded. 33.8%. 

• Overall in FY17, about 32.0% of QUIT NOW enrollees successfully quit using tobacco at their 7-month follow-up.
• Although the target of 33.0% was met in three of the four quarters, the annual average was negatively impacted by the lower (26.1%) quit rate experienced in quarter two (Q2). The Q2 rate shows people who initially enrolled in services in April-June 2016. These participants' success in quitting tobacco was potentially impacted when service options were scaled back (e.g., no free nicotine medications) due to budget shortfalls.
• Unanticipated heavy promotion of cessation services nationally by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) increased use of services earlier in the year, leaving fewer funds for late FY16. Thus, the TUPAC Program and other states’ programs advised CDC to improve communication and provide timelines of national promotion, so that states can better adjust their local promotion of cessation services and budget accordingly.
• Fortunately, the TUPAC Program and its media and cessation services contractors were successful in calibrating efforts to ensure ongoing services through the entire fiscal year with minor adjustments in level of service in quarter four. Seven-month quit rates appear to have rebounded because of consistent availability of services.