Reported willingness among adolescent nonsmokers to help parents, peers, and others to stop smoking.
BACKGROUND
This study of 1025 adolescent nonsmokers aged 11-19 years examined level of interest and factors associated with reported willingness to help someone stop smoking.


METHODS
Data were collected from a survey distributed primarily in the schools at four geographic and ethnically diverse study sites.


RESULTS
A total of 692 adolescents identified someone close to them who smokes whom they thought should quit. Of these, 90% reported that they would be willing to help this person stop smoking. Multivariate predictors of willingness to help were female gender, less difficulty reading English, and greater level of comfort with talking to the smoker about their smoking. The smoker that the adolescents were willing to help was most often a parent or same age friend.


CONCLUSIONS
If this strong interest among adolescents could be tapped, engaging teens as support persons could be a novel public health approach to reaching parents, adolescents, and other smokers in the population.
Patten
Christi A
CA
Nicotine Dependence Center Research Program, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA. patten.christi@mayo.edu
Lopez
Keila
K
Thomas
Janet L
JL
Offord
Kenneth P
KP
Decker
Paul A
PA
Pingree
Suzanne
S
Dornelas
Ellen A
EA
Ahluwalia
Jasjit S
JS
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006379:Helping Behavior; D006801:Humans; D007615:Kansas; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents; D010379:Peer Group; D016540:Smoking Cessation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires