Background:
In 2004, the first quitline (010-65089393) was set up by Beijing Chaoyang Hospital in China mainland, which was upgraded to free quitline (400-888-5531) in 2009, only provided passive counseling. In May 2016, the Chinese Association on Tobacco Control has established partnerships with Beijing Chaoyang Hospital in co-manage this quitline and renamed "China Quitline". This study was to analyze the characteristics of the callers and to estimate the effectiveness of active counseling intervention provided by this quitline.

Methods:
Callers to "China Quitline" from 27 May 2016 to 31 May 2017 were included. Active counseling service was provided to smoking callers who needed it, included 1 registration call and 4 cessation counseling calls. The demographic characteristics, tobacco dependence assessment, readiness to quit and the cessation outcomes were analyzed.

Results:
During one year, China Quitline had served 3521 callers from 31 provinces, of which 85.7% were male, 62.7% were middle aged, and 71.7% were smokers. The smoking callers were more dependent on nicotine (85.3% FTND score≥4), more likely to make a quit attempt (77.1%) and quit by self-help (94.6%). In addition, 53.7% of smoking callers were ready to quit in 30 days, and 41.5% were willing to use active counseling intervention. In callers received active counseling service, the 7-day-point quit rates in day 7 and day 30 were 21.6% and 9.6%, respectively. Smokers who are older than 40 years (OR,2.04;95% CI,1.25-3.35),with tobacco related diseases (OR,9.65;95% CI,5.38-17.33), counseling cessation methods (OR,3.73;95% CI,2.45-5.68), were associated with readiness to quit in 30 days, and that counseling smoking cessation medications(OR, 0.35; 95% CI, 0.21-0.60), and smoking cessation clinic (OR, 0.38; 95% CI, 0.44-0.64), were less willing to receive active conseling intervention.

Conclusions:
China Quitline has provided cessation conseling service to a relatively represent active smokers in China mainland and the active conseling service provided was effective.