Teen smokers target of media campaign

Helping teen smokers has been the aim of web site GottaQuit.com. According to County Executive Jack Doyle, this Monroe County media campaign has been successful in attracting smokers to free online counseling and personalized quit calendars. "Clearly, getting people, particularly our youth, to quit smoking is an important goal," said Doyle. He added that GottaQuit.com is unique in targeting youth and bringing them resources to help them quit smoking.

In phase one of a four-part evaluation, independent evaluator Dr. Jonathan Klein, a faculty member at the University of Rochester Medical Center Division of Pediatrics, concluded that GottaQuit.com "reached almost all Monroe County teens." Klein conducted a telephone survey of 227 households using a questionnaire based on the Youth Tobacco Survey from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Three other phases of the evaluation are currently underway.

Dr. Klein reported that virtually all youth - 94 percent - reported that they had seen or heard a GottaQuit.com commercial on TV or radio and knew that it was an ad for a Web site offering help to kids trying to quit smoking.

In addition, 27 percent of all youth smokers reached in the survey had visited the GottaQuit.com Web site. Typically, in other communities that promote telephone hotlines, only 3-5 percent of smokers report that they utilize the service. "To achieve a 27 percent success rate in getting teens to visit GottaQuit.com is astounding," said Monroe County Health Director Andrew Doniger, M.D. "This rate is about five times the rate of success achieved with the promotion of successful smoker telephone hotlines."

GottaQuit.com has been funded by Monroe County since 2000. The Web site and live on-line cessation counseling have been active since early in 2001. The site features information about nicotine addiction, advice on how to quit smoking and an innovative counseling system where youth communicate with counselors on a one-to-one basis via Instant Messaging software on the Internet. That feature was the first of its kind when launched in 2001.

Other findings in Dr. Klein's study:

• Half of the adolescents surveyed reported that they had tried smoking.
• Teens were 14 years old, on average, when they first tried a cigarette.
• Of those, 83 percent reported smoking a whole cigarette and 29 percent reported having smoked 100 or more cigarettes.
• 42 percent of the teens who have smoked reported that they have been daily smokers.
• Relatively few - 8 percent - reported using chewing tobacco or snuff.
• Only 40 percent of adolescent smokers report they have been proofed for age when buying cigarettes.
• 72 percent of youth smokers reported that they want to quit, and 64 percent have tried to quit in the past.
• 81 percent of youth smokers have received information about smoking from their parents and 62 percent have received information about smoking from their doctors.