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High school smokers from 2 central Appalachian states received the American Lung Association's 10-session Not On Tobacco (N-O-T) program or a 15-minute brief self-help intervention. Our study compared the efficacy of N-O-T with that of the brief intervention by examining group differences in the 15-month-postbaseline (12-month-postprogram) smoking quit rates.
N-O-T youths had higher overall quit rates. Review of end-of-program (3-month-postbaseline) and 3-month-postprogram (6-month-postbaseline) follow-up data showed state-level differences and positive cessation trends overtime, regardless of treatment intensity. Quit rates were lower than rates found in other N-O-T studies of nonrural youths, suggesting that Appalachian youths are a recalcitrant smoking sample. Findings suggest that N-O-T is one option for long-term smoking cessation among rural teens.
IN AN OUTSTANDING REVIEW of the current adolescent tobacco cessation research, Sussman1 concludes that there is ample evidence to recommend the use of teen smoking cessation programs rather than providing little or no intervention. In spite of this encouraging conclusion, there is much more that we need to learn about teen smoking cessation, especially among disparate or high-risk subgroups.1,2 One notable high-risk group is youths from less-educated, impoverished, rural areas.3 Rural youths start smoking earlier, have higher smoking rates, and have higher risk for developing smoking-related mortality and morbidity later in life than their nonrural counterparts.3 Intervention is particularly important because it is a way to address current disparities in risky behavior as well as health disparities in future tobacco-related chronic disease.
Little is known about smoking cessation in this vulnerable subpopulation, especially regarding cessation maintenance over time. To address this gap, this report provides long-term follow-up data for 14- to 19-year-olds who participated in the American Lung Association's Not On Tobacco (N-O-T) program. High school smokers from 2 central Appalachian states, West Virginia and North Carolina, received either the 10-session N-O-T program or a 15-minute brief selfhelp intervention (BI). The investigation's aim was to compare the efficacy of N-O-T with that of the BI by examining group differences in the 15-month-postbaseline (12-month-postprogram) smoking quit rates.
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
Intervention Approaches
N-O-T consisted of 10 hour-long sessions that occurred on average once a week. The program was delivered in same-sex groups of 4 to 12 teens, led by a same-sex facilitator. The program was delivered in accordance with the American Lung...