Relapse Prevention for Adolescent Ex-Smokers

描述(申请人提供)：在过去的十年中，青少年中吸烟的人数有所增加。鉴于超过80%的成年吸烟者在18岁之前开始吸烟，这一趋势尤其重要。针对这一问题，研究人员和公共卫生官员近年来越来越重视减少青少年吸烟。青少年控烟最普遍的形式是防止吸烟。尽管近几十年来制定和实施了许多预防方案，但大多数方案的成功率都不高。最近，研究人员和临床医生在青少年戒烟领域加大了努力。然而，青少年戒烟仍处于初级阶段，戒烟干预的成功率也不高。一个研究和干预研究不足的领域是青少年复发预防。这一点很重要，因为青少年戒烟的频率比成年人高，而且复发的频率也比成年人高。目前的提案旨在通过将这些技术应用于青少年并使其适用于青少年，来利用在成人预防复发方面取得的进展。最终，我们的干预措施将包括一系列仿照戒烟手册的小册子，这些小册子成功地减少了最近戒烟的成年人群的复发。我们将根据青少年的具体需要对小册子进行改编。干预措施的调整将基于定性评估，包括一系列焦点小组、深入访谈和学习者验证 访谈(研究I)。研究二将是一项可行性干预研究，使用我们重新设计的预防复发小册子，并将在研究一之后进行。戒烟的青少年将从六所公立高中招募，并将每三周收到一系列8本小册子。评估将在治疗开始后一个月、三个月和五个月进行。研究二将使我们能够评估对青少年戒烟者实施基于邮件的干预的程序和机制，还将为我们提供关于基于邮件的计划的可接受性以及我们的招募和同意程序的可行性的初步数据。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cigarette smoking among adolescents has increased over the past decade. This trend is particularly important given that more than 80% of adult smokers initiated smoking prior to age 18. In response to this problem, researchers and public health officials have placed an increased emphasis on reducing youth cigarette smoking in recent years. The most pervasive form of youth tobacco control is prevention of smoking. Although many prevention programs have been developed and implemented in recent decades, the success rates of most of these programs has been modest. More recently, researchers and clinicians have increased efforts in the area of smoking cessation for adolescents. However, smoking cessation for youth is still in its incipient phase, and the success rates of cessation interventions have also been modest. One understudied area for research and intervention is relapse-prevention for adolescents. This is significant because adolescents quit smoking more frequently than adults, and also relapse more frequently than adults. The current proposal aims to capitalize upon the advances made in adult relapse-prevention by applying and adapting these techniques to adolescents. Ultimately our intervention will consist of a series of booklets modeled after the Stay Quit booklets, which have been successful at reducing relapse among the general population of adult recent quitters. We will adapt the booklets to meet the specific needs of adolescents. The adaptation of the intervention will be based upon qualitative evaluations including a series of focus groups, in-depth interviews, and learner verification interviews (Study I). Study II will be a feasibility intervention study using our redesigned relapse-prevention booklets, and will follow Study I. Adolescents who have quit smoking will be recruited from six public high schools and will receive the series of 8 booklets sent every three weeks. Assessments will be conducted at one month, three months, and five months after the beginning of treatment. Study II will allow us to assess the procedures and mechanics of administering a mail-based intervention to adolescent ex-smokers, and will also provide us with preliminary data regarding the acceptability of our mail-based program, and the feasibility of our recruitment and consent procedures.