Taiwan Report on Quitline Activities

Aiming at reducing the smoking population, the Taiwan government adopted a successful smoking cessation quitline model from California Smokers' Helpline, commissioned a private non-profit organization-Teacher Chang Foundation, which was well-known for its quality telephone counseling service-to set up Asia's first quitline, Taiwan Smokers' Helpline (TSH) in 2003. The establishment of the quitline constituted significant progress for tobacco control in Taiwan, as it built up a cooperative model with smoking cessation clinics to increase the quit rate through assisting smokers to overcome their psychological obstacles encountered while attempting to quit smoking.