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Smoking cessation for young people
Amanda Amos
Powerpoint
Presentation
Abstract
Over the past few years there has been increasing interest
in developing smoking cessation initiatives and services
for young people. Given the differences in adolescents'
smoking patterns, levels of consumption and dependence
compared to older smokers, it cannot be assumed that cessation
approaches that are effective with adults will also be
effective with younger smokers. However, there has been
relatively little research on smoking cessation for young
people. This presentation will discuss smoking cessation
and young people from two perspectives.
The first part of the presentation will consider what
we know about young people and smoking, and why there
is an increased focus on cessation with this age group.
It will review the research evidence on cessation interventions
with young people including studies on the use of pharmacotherapies
(NRT and bupropion). This will include a consideration
of the quality of these studies and the limited conclusions
that can be drawn from these about the effectiveness of
different approaches.
The second part will report the findings of a qualitative
study of 16 to 19 year old smokers which explored how
they understood their smoking and their attitudes towards
quitting and cessation support. This included their perceptions
of addiction, barriers to quitting, effectiveness of NRT
and future quitting intentions. On the basis of the study's
findings it is concluded that traditional 'adult' smoking
cessation services are unlikely to appeal to older adolescents.
Services aimed at this age group need to be grounded in
their understandings of smoking and the social factors
which support smoking.
Biography
Dr Amanda Amos is Reader in Health Promotion in the Division
of Community Health Sciences at Edinburgh University.
She has a longstanding research interest in smoking and
tobacco control. She is a board member of ASH Scotland,
a founder member of The International Network of Women
Against Tobacco and a senior editor of the international
journal Tobacco Control.
Amanda Amos
Reader in Health Promotion, Public Health Sciences,
Division of Community Health Sciences, Medical School,
Edinburgh University
amanda.amos@ed.ac.uk
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