Does Effectiveness of Adolescent Smoking-Cessation Intervention Endure Into Young Adulthood? 7-Year Follow-Up Results from a Group-Randomized Trial.

Arthur V Peterson,Evette J Ludman,Jonathan B Bricker,Patrick M Marek,Jaimee L Heffner,Kathleen A Kealey,Bernard Le Foll

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0146459

Abstract

BackgroundThe Hutchinson Study of High School Smoking was the first randomized trial to show effectiveness of a smoking cessation intervention on 6-months prolonged smoking abstinence at one year post-intervention in a large population-based sample of adolescent smokers. An important question remains: Do the positive effects from teen smoking cessation interventions seen at up to 12 months post-intervention endure into young adulthood? This study examines for the first time whether such positive early effects from teen smoking cessation intervention can endure into young adulthood in the absence of additional intervention.MethodsHigh school smokers (n = 2,151) were proactively recruited into the trial from fifty randomly selected Washington State high schools randomized to the experimental (Motivational Interviewing + Cognitive Behavioral Skills Training telephone counseling intervention) or control (no intervention) condition. These smokers were followed to 7 years post high school to ascertain rates of six-year prolonged smoking abstinence in young adulthood. All statistical tests are two-sided.ResultsNo evidence of intervention impact at seven years post high school was observed for the main endpoint of six-year prolonged abstinence, neither among all smokers (14.2% in the experimental condition vs. 13.1% in the control condition, difference = +1.1%, 95% confidence interval (CI) = -3.4 to 5.8, p = .61), nor among the subgroups of daily smokers and less-than-daily smokers, nor among other a priori subgroups. But, observed among males was some evidence of an intervention impact on two endpoints related to progress towards quitting: reduction in number of days smoked in the past month, and increase in the length of the longest quit attempt in the past year.ConclusionsThere was no evidence from this trial among adolescent smokers that positive effectiveness of the proactive telephone intervention for smoking abstinence, observed previously at one year post-intervention, was sustained for the long-term into young adulthood. In light of the positive short-term effectiveness consistently observed from this and other trials for teen smokers, together with the lack of evidence from this study that such short-term impact can endure into young adulthood, sustained interventions that continue into young adulthood should be developed and tested for long-term impact.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT00115882

Highlights

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States, resulting in more than 480,000 premature deaths each year [1]
An important question remains: Do the positive effects from teen smoking cessation interventions seen at up to 12 months post-intervention endure into young adulthood? This study examines for the first time whether such positive early effects from teen smoking cessation intervention can endure into young adulthood in the absence of additional intervention
There was no evidence from this trial among adolescent smokers that positive effectiveness of the proactive telephone intervention for smoking abstinence, observed previously at one year post-intervention, was sustained for the long-term into young adulthood

Summary

Introduction

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States, resulting in more than 480,000 premature deaths each year [1]. The Hutchinson Study of High School Smoking (HS), the setting for this paper, was the first randomized trial to show the effectiveness of a smoking-cessation intervention in a large population-based sample of adolescent smokers in a non-medical population setting [3,4]. The Hutchinson Study of High School Smoking was the first randomized trial to show effectiveness of a smoking cessation intervention on 6-months prolonged smoking abstinence at one year post-intervention in a large population-based sample of adolescent smokers. An important question remains: Do the positive effects from teen smoking cessation interventions seen at up to 12 months post-intervention endure into young adulthood? This study examines for the first time whether such positive early effects from teen smoking cessation intervention can endure into young adulthood in the absence of additional intervention An important question remains: Do the positive effects from teen smoking cessation interventions seen at up to 12 months post-intervention endure into young adulthood? This study examines for the first time whether such positive early effects from teen smoking cessation intervention can endure into young adulthood in the absence of additional intervention

Results

Discussion

Conclusion