Ross Shegog, PhD¹, Alexander V. Prokhorov, MD, PhD², Steven H. Kelder, PhD, MPH¹, Susan H. Billipp, MPH, DrPH¹, Salma Marani, MS², and Carl De Moor, PhD¹. (1) Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research, UT-Houston School of Public Health, 7000 Fannin, Houston, TX 77030, 713-500-9677, Ross.Shegog@uth.tmc.edu, (2) M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Department of Behavioral Science, Box 243, 1515 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, TX 77030

Introduction: ASPIRE is an interactive multimedia CD-ROM smoking prevention and cessation curriculum for high school students. The curriculum is primarily based on the transtheoretical model of change (TTM) that has shown its applicability to adolescents. Aims: The aim of this intermediate analysis is to examine the efficacy of the ASPIRE program in changing determinants of smoking and quitting behavior at 12-month follow-up of an 18 month study. Methods: In a sample of predominately minority adolescence (38.5% males, mean age 15.5 years), linear mixed model regression tested for significant differences at 12 month follow-up between intervention (N=603) and control (N=444) groups for smoking status, number of cigarettes smoked per week, TTM’s decisional balance, temptation to smoke, and self-efficacy to resist smoking. Results: There were fewer smokers in the intervention group (.05) than control (.06) at 12-month follow-up, but the difference was not significant (p.=.36). Significant differences (p.<.05) were found between intervention (0.3) and control (1.0) groups using the Minnesota Smoking Index (MSI) and in temptations to smoke (13.3 vs. 14.9; p.<.05). Significant differences were also found between intervention and control groups in decisional balance (2.0 vs. -2.8; p. = .001) and in self-efficacy to resist smoking (52.0 vs. 47.3; p. = .01). Conclusion: The 12-month follow-up findings between intervention and control groups in number of cigarettes smoked per week, temptation to smoke, decisional balance, and self-efficacy to resist smoking hold considerable promise with respect to the ASPIRE program’s ability to positively influence key mediating variables of adolescent smoking.

Learning Objectives: