Teens on teen smoking cessation: Creating a client-based practice model

Since 2001, Mom's Quit Connection has provided perinatal smoking cessation services to health providers and clients in seven Southern NJ counties. A Southern NJ Perinatal Cooperative program funded by the NJ Department of Health and Senior Services, MQC provides cessation counseling, provider training and community education. This year MQC extends its focus to the tobacco addicted adolescent. According to the 2006 NJ Youth Tobacco Study, rates of decline among all NJ teens who smoke have slowed in recent years. Differing rates of decline by race and ethnicity will make disparities more evident over time. Although 47.6% of current high school smokers report interest in quitting, only 34.1% of frequent smokers report being advised to quit by a health professional. Moreover cessation programs that are suitable for teens are scarce. Programs housed in hospitals are unlikely to attract adolescents while schools tend to focus educational and support programs on substance abuse and mental health issues. The Cooperative's regional clinician network provides a practical framework to explore adolescent cessation. At least 40 pediatric and family practitioners will be surveyed regarding current practices and areas of additional training needed. A second survey will question approximately 250 teens from diverse rural, urban and suburban settings (physicians' offices, WIC, high schools) about motivations, barriers and effective strategies for quitting, access to and utilization of cessation treatment services. Survey results will be incorporated into a best practices curriculum and made available to clinicians.