A national evaluation of community-based youth cessation programs: design and implementation

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Behavioral Science
• Program Evaluation

Background:

• Youth smoking cessation treatments are widely available but their real-world effectiveness is not well understood.
• Community-based programs are a common delivery method for youth cessation interventions.
• Evaluating these real-world programs is crucial for improving public health outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the effectiveness of community-based, group-format youth cessation treatments.
• To provide a framework and evaluation design for real-world program assessments.
• To identify implementation strategies for large-scale evaluations of youth cessation programs.

Main Methods:

• Recruited 41 community-based group-format programs treating at least 15 youth annually.
• Collected longitudinal survey data from 878 youth participants.
• Gathered data from program leaders, organizational leaders, and community leaders, alongside policy information.

Main Results:

• The study established a framework for evaluating real-world youth cessation programs.
• Data collection methods included surveys of youth, program leaders, and community stakeholders.
• Information on smoking-related ordinances was also collected to contextualize findings.

Conclusions:

• The described framework, evaluation design, and implementation strategies can serve as a template for future large-scale real-world program evaluations.
• This study highlights the need for rigorous evaluation of existing youth cessation interventions.
• The findings can inform the development and improvement of community-based smoking cessation programs for adolescents.