[Are competitions an appropriate instrument for youth smoking cessation? A 1-year follow-up of the Germany-wide "Smoke-free 2004" campaign].
BACKGROUND
In 2004, the German Cancer Research Center ("Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum" [DKFZ]), collaborating with the Federal Center for Health Education (""Bundeszentrale für gesundheitliche Aufklärung" [BZgA]) and supported by the World Health Organization (WHO), carried out a population-related smoking cessation campaign entitled "Rauchfrei 2004" ("Smoke-free 2004"). Using mass-media communication, the campaign was intended to motivate as many smokers as possible to quit smoking for at least 4 weeks, so as to achieve, ideally, complete cessation of tobacco consumption. This prevention campaign explicitly included juvenile smokers.


METHODS
Within a 1-year follow-up survey, a 1/3 random sample was taken from a total of 4,358 juvenile participants whose smoking status by the end of the competition and 1 year later was evaluated according to international standards.


RESULTS
42% of juvenile participants named monetary reasons, 33% health-related reasons as their chief motivation for participating in the competition. 61% of young adults questioned stated that they were abstinent at the end of the competition, i.e., at least for 4 weeks. 1 year later, 19% of juvenile participants stated to be nonsmokers. 12% of them stated to have been continuously abstinent for 12 months after the start of the competition.


CONCLUSIONS
This publication is the first scientific evaluation of juvenile participation in a competition-based smoking cessation campaign. Although some methodological restrictions need to be taken into account, abstinence rates determined according to internationally applied WHO evaluation guidelines are significantly higher than the secular trend. Thus, the prevention approach presented here appears to be similarly effective as alternative intervention programs that tend to be more expensive.
Schneider
Sven
S
Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum und WHO-Kollaborationszentrum für Tabakkontrolle, Im Neuenheimer Feld 280, 69120 Heidelberg. s.schneider@dkfz.de
Mohnen
Sigrid Mechthild
SM
Tönges
Saskia
S
Pötschke-Langer
Martina
M
Schulze
Alexander
A
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D003163:Competitive Behavior; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005858:Germany; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008402:Mass Media; D009042:Motivation; D015397:Program Evaluation; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000379:methods*