Quit-smoking program for teens uses tech tools

http://nowdailynews.blogspot.com - Many smokers will resolve to quit on New Year's Day— and if some health educators have their way, increasing numbers of quitters will be teenagers, on Jan. 1 and throughout the year.

The National Cancer Institute is rolling out a new quitting program aimed at teens. It now includes a website (teen.smokefree.gov) and texting support, and in January it will add a smartphone application, says Erik Auguston, a behavioral scientist at the institute.

The program joins others with the same aim: Helping teen smokers quit before they become chronic adult smokers. It comes on the heels of new data showing teen smoking rates are dropping again after stagnating for a while.

But it's hardly good news that 19% of teens smoke by 12th grade, says Lloyd Johnston, a researcher at the University of Michigan who leads an annual study tracking teen smoking, drinking and drug use. Previous research suggests most of those teens will keep smoking and some light smokers will become heavy smokers, he says.

"From a health viewpoint, (tobacco) is probably the most important of all the drugs," Johnston says. "There's no other product, legal or illegal, that kills as many people."

But teens are not very receptive to messages about diseases they won't develop for decades or to programs aimed at adults, Auguston says: "Traditionally, teens and young adults have not actively engaged in quitting smoking. They are more in the uptake process." And when they do try to quit, Auguston says, they often go it alone and fail.

The Smokefree Teen program relies upon:

•Messages that emphasize teens are in charge. One slogan on the site about teens and their health decisions: "We're NOT going to tell you what to do."

•Materials that focus on teen-specific triggers. Those include mood, social life, test anxiety and peer pressure.

•Technologies teens use. Teens who want to quit can text QUIT to iQUIT (47848) to start getting helpful messages or go to the website to connect with counselors via instant messaging or phone. They also can join support networks on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.

The program "is a gigantic step in the right direction," says Alexander Prokhorov, a behavioral scientist at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston who has developed anti-smoking programs for teens, including Aspire, a website.

Teen smokers are receptive to messages about staining their teeth, smelling bad, wasting money, harming the environment — and even the fact that their smoke can hurt their siblings and pets, he says. That kind of information, he says, is "eye-popping to many of them."