Using nicotine replacement therapy in treating nicotine addiction in adolescents

Developing and evaluating a smoking cessation program combined with an Internet-assisted instruction program for adolescents with smoking

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to develop a smoking cessation program combined with an Internet-assisted instruction (IAI) program to help youth smokers quit smoking, and to evaluate the effectiveness of the program in changing youth's attitudes toward smoking, smoking behavior, and self-efficacy for smoking cessation.

METHODS

To achieve this goal, a comparative study of 77 senior high students divided into two groups was conducted. One group, designated as the experimental group, accepted a 6-week smoking cessation program plus an IAI program and the other group did not receive any intervention as the comparison group. All participants completed questionnaires before and after the program.

RESULTS

The results showed that the strategy of combining the smoking cessation program and an IAI program was highly effective in terms of effects upon the youth's attitude towards smoking, smoking behavior, and self-efficacy. There was a highly positive correlation between the participants' attitude toward smoking and self-efficacy. In contrast, cigarette consumption was in a strongly negative correlation with self-efficacy.

CONCLUSION

Most of all participants in the experimental group recognized the effectiveness of the program, and thought the smoking cessation program with an IAI program was helpful and welcomed by youth. This study can serve as reference for future design and implementation of IAI programs for youth smoking cessation.

Childhood smoking: the research, clinical and theoretical imperative for nursing action

BACKGROUND

Tobacco smoking is a major international health issue which nurses are ideally positioned to address. Childhood represents a critical period for intervention to prevent/reduce smoking. During childhood, the majority of smokers first experiment with smoking, are initiated into the smoking subculture and become addicted to tobacco. Children are highly susceptible to smoking as a result of developmental factors, which promote or facilitate high-risk behaviours, limited coping skills, limited defences and inadequate legal protection against youth-focused marketing of tobacco.

AIM

This paper is intended to sensitize nurses to the magnitude of childhood smoking as an international health problem and to familiarize them with current intervention approaches and care issues pertinent to child and adolescent populations.

METHOD

An extensive literature review was conducted to determine the impact of childhood smoking at the personal and community level, characteristics of child smokers, the processes associated with smoking cessation, intervention approaches and intervention models for use by nurses across the spectrum of clinical settings.

FINDINGS

Evidence exists that behaviourally based interventions by nurses for smoking prevention/cessation are effective with children. Key components of effective behaviourally based antismoking approaches for smokers include addressing self-efficacy to quit, providing social support, resisting temptation to smoke and discussing issues related to relapse and relapse prevention. For all children, the reinforcement of non-smoking behaviour is essential. Intervention models, which can be incorporated into routine clinical care of individual children or with groups, emphasize the importance of parental involvement, routine screening for tobacco use and provision of a clear message that smoking and tobacco use is unhealthy.