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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Dianne C. Barker, MHS¹, Gary Giovino, PhD², Ann Malarcher, PhD³, Julia Gable, MS⁴, Kathleen Donohue, MS², Paul Mowery, MS³, Cindy Tworek, PhD, MPH⁵, and C.Tracy Orleans, PhD⁶. (1) Barker Bi-Coastal Health, 3556 Elm Drive, Calabasas, CA 91302, 818-876-0689, dcbarker@earthlink.net, (2) Department of Health Behavior, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Division of Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences, Elm and Carlton Streets, Buffalo, NY 14263, (3) Office of Smoking and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Highway, NW MS-K50, Atlanta, GA 30341, (4) RTI International, 2951 Flowers Road South, Suite 119, Atlanta, GA 30341, (5) Center for Tobacco Independence, 22 Bramhall Street, Portland, ME 04102, (6) Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Rt 1 & College Road East, Princeton, NJ 08540

More than 50 percent of youth smokers try to quit each year, but less than 3-5% become smoke-free for life. Focus group data suggest that younger smokers are less interested in professional help than older adults. However, little is known about the extent to which young smokers access available quitting assistance services and methods, or how various individual, familial, social, and environmental factors affect quitting behavior over time. Recognizing this gap, the National Youth Smoking Cessation Survey recently undertook a two-year longitudinal telephone survey of 2,582 randomly selected smokers aged 16-24, residing in the United States. Data from all three survey waves (baseline, 12-month and 24-month follow-up, ending in December, 2005) will be presented. First, psycho-social, behavioral, and environmental factors associated with young smokers' quitting behavior over time will be discussed. One-year follow-up data indicate that presence of another household smoker, parental reaction to smoking, nicotine dependence, weight issues, and stress were among those factors undermining a successful quit attempt. Second, a multivariate model analyzing factors associated with young smokers' awareness of, preference for, and use of various methods and approaches to quitting will be presented. At the 12-month follow-up, over one-quarter (28.7%) of young smokers had used an evidence-based quitting method since baseline. Implications of these findings will be discussed in the context of the current availability of programs, and how future programming can be tailored to better address older youth's needs and preferences.

Learning Objectives:

• 1. To assess factors associated with successful quitting among older youth smokers.
• 2. To articulate how young smokers use or do not use tobacco treatment interventions to help them quit smoking.
• 3. To explore how program planners might better tailor smoking cessation interventions for young smokers

Keywords: Smoking Cessation, Youth

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No