TABADO: "evaluation of a smoking cessation program among adolescents in vocational training centers": study protocol.
BACKGROUND
Most of the efforts to reduce teenagers' tobacco addiction have focused on smoking prevention and little on smoking cessation. A smoking cessation program (TABADO study), associating pharmacologic and cognitive-behavioural strategy, on a particularly vulnerable population (vocational trainees), was developed. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of the program which was offered to all smokers in a population aged 15 to 20 years in Vocational Training Centers (VTC). This paper presents the TABADO study protocol.


METHODS
The study is quasi-experimental, prospective, evaluative and comparative and takes place during the 2 years of vocational training. The final population will be composed of 2000 trainees entering a VTC in Lorraine, France, during the 2008-2009 period. The intervention group (1000 trainees) benefited from the TABADO program while no specific intervention took place in the "control" group (1000 trainees) other than the treatment and education services usually available. Our primary outcome will be the tobacco abstinence rate at 12 months.


CONCLUSIONS
If the program proves effective, it will be a new tool in the action against smoking in populations that have been seldom targeted until now. In addition, the approach could be expanded to other young subjects from socially disadvantaged backgrounds in the context of a public health policy against smoking among adolescents.


BACKGROUND
Clinical trial identification number is NTC00973570.
Minary
Laetitia
L
Centres d'Investigation Clinique - Epidémiologie Clinique CIE 6, Institut National de la santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Nancy, France. l.minary@chu-nancy.fr
Martini
Hervé
H
Wirth
Nathalie
N
Thouvenot
Francine
F
Acouetey
Dovi-Stéphanie
DS
Martinet
Yves
Y
Bohadana
Abraham
A
Zmirou-Navier
Denis
D
Alla
François
F
D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011446:Prospective Studies; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000379:methods; D013334:Students; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014829:Vocational Education