Do US quitsites present information related to providing services for LGBTQ individuals? An audit study.

Introduction: Most US quitlines have quitsites and websites designated to promote their services. Quitsites have the potential to encourage LGBTQ individuals to utilize quitline services by explicitly mentioning the provision of LGBTQ-competent services. The present study audited quitsites to determine the presence of information regarding services for LGBTQ individuals.

Methods: Using a checklist consisting of nine criteria, a cross-sectional audit of the US quitsites was conducted between 16 October and 8 November 2023. The audit was divided into two phases: 1) auditors coded all quitsites separately, and 2) auditors met with the first author to compare their coding and reach a consensus. The inter-rater agreement was calculated. Frequencies and percentages were calculated for each criterion.

Results: Auditors evaluated a total of 46 quitsites. Inter-rater agreement was 96.85%. Seven quitsites (15.2%) met 0 of the nine criteria, and 36.9% of the quitsites (17/46) met more than six criteria. Only one quitsite met 8 of 9. No individual website met all nine criteria. While 84.8% of quitsites had at least a singular mention of the LGBTQ community somewhere on their website, only 4.3% of the quitsites mentioned the LGBTQ community on their landing page.

Conclusions: Most quitsites mentioned the LGBTQ community somewhere on their website (84.8%). However, only 4.3% of the quitsites mentioned the LGBTQ community on their landing page. Results suggest that quitsites explicitly mention the provision of services for LGBTQ individuals on their landing page, which has the potential to engage LGBTQ individuals into quitline services and reduce tobacco-related disparities.