Helping Young Smokers Quit: Identifying Best Practices for Tobacco Cessation (HYSQ)
Abstract
Helping Young Smokers Quit (HYSQ) is a two-phase project designed to address the important need to disseminate effective, developmentally appropriate cessation programs for adolescent smokers. While a growing number of teen cessation programs are available, little is known about: how many programs exist, where they are located, what services they offer, what populations they serve, or how they provide treatment. Moreover, only a handful of such programs have been evaluated. The HYSQ initiative has two primary aims:
- To identify and describe tobacco treatment programs available to youth across the United States
- To evaluate smoking cessation programs that are tailored for youth to help understand what works.
In Phase I, a national survey of existing adolescent cessation programs was conducted to identify and characterize major program offerings, and the resources and constraints of the “real world” settings in which these services are offered. In Phase II, longitudinal program evaluations are being conducted of practices now being used across the US. The overarching question is “what program component, process, and contextual factors are associated with increased recruitment, retention and quit rates?” The HYSQ initiative fills a gap in knowledge about the numbers and distribution of youth cessation programs, as well as the types of treatment approaches and program components that are currently offered across the US. It will identify effective program models and promising directions for future research. Findings from HYSQ will assist practitioners, researchers, and funding organizations plan future youth smoking cessation programs and activities.
Program Evaluation Toolkit
Helping Young Smokers Quit designed an evaluation toolkit for providers of youth smoking cessation programs. The free toolkit helps program administrators conduct a basic evaluation of their program to figure out the ways it affects the young smokers who take part in it. Learn more.
Affiliated Center/Program
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF grant no. 052624)
National Cancer Institute
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Susan J. Curry, PhD, was the principal investigator of this grant until July 31, 2008, when she moved to the University of Iowa.
Related publications
Curry SJ, Mermelstein RJ, Emery SL, Sporer AK, Berbaum ML, Campbell RT, Flay B, Warnecke RB. A national evaluation of community-based youth cessation programs: end of program and twelve-month outcomes. Am J Community Psychol. 2012 Mar 1. [Epub ahead of print] [See abstract.]
Curry SJ, Emery S, Sporer AK, Mermelstein R, Flay BR, Berbaum M, Warnecke RB, Johnson T, Mowery P, Parsons J, Harmon L, Hund L, Wells H. A national survey of tobacco cessation programs for youths. Am J Public Health. 2007 Jan;97(1):171-7. [See abstract.]
Curry SJ, Mermelstein RJ, Sporer AK. Therapy for specific problems: youth tobacco cessation. Annu Rev Psychol. 2009;60:229-55. [See abstract.]
Curry SJ, Sporer AK, Pugach O, Campbell RT, Emery S. Use of tobacco cessation treatments among young adult smokers: 2005 National Health Interview Survey. Am J Public Health. 2007 Aug;97(8):1464-9. [See abstract.]
Diviak KR, Curry SJ, Emery SL, Mermelstein RJ. Human participants challenges in youth tobacco cessation research: researchers' perspectives. Ethics & Behavior. 2004;14(4):32. [See abstract.]
Wagener DK, Sporer AK, Simmerling M, Flome JL, An C, Curry SJ. Human participants challenges in youth-focused research: perspectives and practices of IRB administrators. Ethics & Behavior. 2004;14(4):335–349. [See abstract.]
News releases
UIC Launches Free, Online Toolkit to Evaluate Youth Smoking Cessation Programs (April 23, 2010)
Young Adult Smokers Want to Quit, But Most Do Not Seek Proven Treatment (June 28, 2007)
Youth Smoking Prevention Programs Common, Yet Few Youth Seek Help (November 30, 2006)
UIC Awarded $8 Million to Study Teen Stop-Smoking Programs (April 4, 2003)