More information about the study

How much of my time is involved?

The survey we are asking you to do now takes around 5 minutes. The survey in 1 month takes from 5-10 minutes, depending on how much help you have used in your attempts to quit. The final survey (in around 7 months) takes 2-5 minutes.

Any other time you spend would be you using resources we suggest you try out. The more helpful you find them, the more you are likely to use them. However, you are under no obligation to use any of the resources we might suggest. We would like you to try out these suggestions, but if after checking them out you don't think they will be helpful, you don't need to use them.

What do I get out of participating?

We will point you to resources that may help you to quit, which may be a real benefit to you. In addition, in past research some smokers have reported that knowing they were going to be recontacted helped to keep them focussed on quitting, which seemed to help them to quit.

Your participation will also help smokers in future, who are likely to have access to better help when they try to quit.

Who is involved in the study?

This research is a collaboration between researchers at the Cancer Council Victoria (Prof Ron Borland and Dr James Balmford) who are interested in developing more effective ways of helping smokers quit, and researchers at the Department of Information Systems at The University of Melbourne (Prof Steve Howard and Peter Benda) who are interested in how modern communication technologies (computers and mobile phones) can be designed to be most helpful to people.

What do you expect to find?

We are particularly interested in finding out: (a) whether the Internet and phone-based quitting assistance is effective, and (b) if people use help from both sources, whether they are more likely to quit than those using only help from only one source, or just trying on their own without help. We expect both Internet and phone-based assistance will improve success rates, but are less certain whether combining them will be even more effective.

Do I have to do the follow-up surveys?

Obviously, we would like you to do the follow-up surveys, however the decision is yours. You can withdraw from the study at any time. As all our contacts with you are through emails or phone calls, you have complete control over whether to respond. However, if you do decide to withdraw, we would appreciate you telling us why.

Will the information I provide be kept confidential?

Yes, we will comply with strict standards for ensuring confidentiality of any information you provide. This research has been approved by The Cancer Council Victoria Human Research Ethics Committee, ref # HREC 0510.