Innovative strategies target teen smokers: approaches include smoking reduction for those who don't want to quit, and cash incentives for abstinence.

Publication: Internal Medicine News

Publication Date: 15-JUN-06

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COPYRIGHT 2006 International Medical News Group

ORLANDO -- Adolescent smokers are a difficult population to reach, but researchers are trying some novel approaches to combat smoking in that group including smoking reduction instead of cessation, and financial incentives.

"To date the field has been frustrated by relatively low success rates," Robin Mermelstein, Ph.D., of the University of Illinois at Chicago, said at the annual meeting of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. With adolescents, researchers need to consider innovative approaches and target programs where the teens are--in schools, she said.

Some researchers are aiming to do just that. For example, Ping Sun, Ph.D., of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and his colleagues are examining the combination of a cessation and prevention curriculum in a single school-based program. In a recent study, Dr. Sun modified the existing Project...

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