The numbers of youth who are addicted to nicotine continues to rise. Given that people who become addicted to nicotine during adolescence are much more likely to continue smoking as adults and to suffer the devastating health consequences of smoking in later adulthood, greater efforts must be taken to help youth to quit smoking. Few interventions have been developed to assist youth to quit smoking to date. Danya International Inc. has assembled a qualified team of staff, experts and collaborators to develop and evaluate a multi-faceted smoking cessation intervention targeting adolescents which, in both content and format, as well as in its design process, will reflect state-of- the-art research findings and involve youth in the development and production of technological innovations. During Phase I, an educational and motivational video, along with a six-session smoking cessation curriculum and facilitator s manual, will be developed and piloted. Planning for a website which will support the intervention and its participants also will be initiated. During Phase II, the website will be fully developed; the intervention curriculum and associate materials will be refined based on results of the Phase I pilot, and a formal evaluation of the smoking cessation package will be conducted.
The program will be marketed to schools, community-based programs and clinics, health maintenance organizations, and state health departments. Linkages with key dissemination organizations and clearinghouses, such as Join Together, NCADI and the CDC Office on Smoking and Health, will be brokered to promote the smoking cessation intervention.
