NHS EXECUTIVE - LONDON

Evaluation of a London-wide smoking cessation campaign targeting the Muslim population

Smoking rates amongst Muslim men are very high. The National Health Service Executive for London conducted a London-wide campaign to curb smoking amongst Muslims. ETHNOS was commissioned to evaluate the overall campaign. We employed a range of techniques to understand how well the messages of the campaign were received by the target populations:

• a postal survey of all London mosques to assess their awareness and opinions of the campaign
• an audit of promotional and educational activities carried out by campaign personnel
• a call audit analysis of Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Turkish smokers helplines during Ramadan
• in-depth interviews with Imams and Directors of Mosques
• in-depth interviews with campaign organisers
• focus groups with Muslim smokers from different minority ethnic communities

The survey of mosques indicated the level of support for the campaign, people’s views of the materials and their willingness to support and participate in activities. The audit of promotional and educational activities detailed exactly the work performed by campaign personnel and the audience they reached, and the relative success of specific activities. The call audit assessed the effectiveness of the media campaign in generating awareness of the campaign and in stimulating calls to Asian telephone helplines. It also yielded a socio-demographic profile of the callers and an account of the key issues raised during their communication with helpline personnel. The evaluation showed the effectiveness of the promotional material in generating awareness of the campaign and in stimulating calls to the different helplines, and the relative impact made by the different media in encouraging smoking cessation. The evaluation led to recommendations on a range of organisational matters.