Smokebusters (Adolescent Smoking Cessation in Pediatric Primary Care)

Over 3 million adolescents in the United States smoke cigarettes, with 2145 starting each day. Most adolescent smokers know they are addicted, 85% think about quitting, and 55-65% have tried to quit, mostly unsuccessfully. Qualitative research has found that adolescents who smoke wanted to quit, but did not think of quitting as something they could receive help with. There is strong evidence that adult smokers can successfully quit; brief counseling interventions are effective for adult smoking cessation, and are promising for adolescents. The purpose of this pilot study being conducted in up to 20 pediatric practices of the Pediatric Research in office Settings Network (PROS) is to: 1) assess pilot procedures for recruitment and randomization of the PROS pediatric practices’ ability to enroll adolescent patients and smokers while minimizing biases in recruitment or differential refusal by smokers, and 2) assess the feasibility of using proactive Internet-based training for smoking cessation by adolescent patients and pediatric clinicians. Findings will assist providers in helping teens quit smoking and will help us in development of a larger, national study. For more information about PROS visit: www.aap.org/pros.