Early Abstinence Among a Cohort of Youth Smokers in Community-Based Smoking Cessation Programs

Background: The body of research on youth smoking cessation remains small, and previous work evaluating cessation treatment has been limited to research settings. The Helping Young Smokers Quit (HYSQ) initiative conducted the first evaluation of community-based youth smoking cessation programs. Methods: Baseline interviews with 878 youth (age 14-18) who were enrolled in one of 41 community-based smoking cessation programs across 18 states in the US were conducted, and follow-up surveys were completed at end-of-program by 801 of these youth (91% response rate). Over 50 baseline individual characteristics were identified and tested in multi-variate analyses to identify factors independently associated with 7-day abstinence at end-of-program. Results: Controlling for demographic characteristics, average amount smoked at baseline was the strongest predictor of 7-day abstinence at end-of-program. Strong motivation to quit, paternal support for quitting, agreeing with the statement that smoking should be prohibited in public places, having plans to attend college or the army, attending religious services, and participating in multiple extracurricular activities were all positively and significantly associated with end-of program abstinence. Having ever used pharmaco-therapy, living with a smoker, and involvement in only sports as an extracurricular were negatively and significantly associated with abstinence. Discussion: This is the most comprehensive examination to date of individual-level characteristics associated with quitting among youth in behavioral smoking cessation treatment, and is the first study to analyze the relationship between individual characteristics and abstinence among youth smokers in community-based cessation programs.