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Missouri receives nearly $2 million grant to reduce smoking
2/9/2010
Missouri receives nearly $2 million grant to reduce smoking, boost nutrition
Money comes from federal stimulus funding designed to improve public health
Missouri will receive slightly more than $1 million in federal stimulus money to
expand its efforts to help smokers kick the habit, state health officials said
Monday.
“This funding will help us expand our highly successful Tobacco Quitline,” said
Margaret Donnelly, director of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior
Services. “We know that this program reduces health care costs at the same time
it provides Missourians with a better quality of life.”
The funding is part of $119.5 million in grants that states received this month
through the federal stimulus package, formally known as the American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act.
The grants will provide $1,015,150 for Missouri’s Quitline expansion. The
Quitline provides counseling, referral services and nicotine replacement therapy
to help smokers overcome their addiction to tobacco.
In the last year, Missouri’s Quitline has been particularly effective. Aided by
an advertising campaign featuring Gov. Jay Nixon and members of the St. Louis
Cardinals and the Kansas City Royals, the Quitline’s usage skyrocketed.
The number of calls last year from smokers seeking help more than doubled, from
5,200 in 2008 to 11,451 in 2009. The department provided nicotine replacement
therapy to 7,453 callers, more than three times as many as the year before.
The new grant will allow health officials to continue to provide Quitline
services after current funding from the Missouri Foundation for Health runs out
later this year. The grant is expected to cover the cost of services to an
additional 4,500 smokers, particularly pregnant women. In Missouri, more than
one of every six pregnant women smokes, a rate 64 percent higher than the
national average.
The funding also will allow the health department to provide free nicotine
replacement to an estimated 951 smokers on Medicaid. By helping Medicaid
recipients quit tobacco, the Medicaid program is expected to achieve significant
long-term savings.
Missouri’s grant was part of $44.5 million included in the stimulus package
specifically to expand tobacco quitlines.
The state also will receive $891,160 to help people stay healthy by improving
nutrition programs and making it easier for people to stay physically activity.
The grant arrives at a time when surveys show that nearly two-thirds of
Missourians are either overweight or obese.
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