Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #116484

Cynthia I. Campbell, PhD, MPH, Psychiatry/Division of Research, UCSF/Kaiser Permanente, 2000 Broadway, 3rd Floor, Oakland, CA 94612, (510) 891-3584, cynthia.i.campbell@kp.org, Constance Weisner, DrPH, UCSF/Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, 2000 Broadway, 3rd Floor, Oakland, CA 94612, and Lyndsay Ammon, MPH, Alcohol Research Group, 2000 Hearst Ave., Suite 300, Berkeley, CA 94709-2167.

Youth smoking is associated with significant risk of other substance use and of long term addiction. Adolescents with alcohol and drug disorders are a high risk population with a higher smoking prevalence than the general population. Chemical dependency (CD) treatment offers a unique opportunity to intervene with smoking youth before they establish a long-term addiction. Treatment programs, which traditionally have resisted treating smoking concurrently with other substances use disorders, have begun to make cessation programs available. However, few studies have examined the smoking behavior and co-occurring psychosocial problems of adolescents in CD treatment, information that could help programs better design smoking cessation treatment. We examined the smoking behavior and clinical characteristics of a sample of adolescents (n=419) at intake to CD treatment at a private managed care health plan. Bivariate analyses showed that smoking youth had initiated substance use at an earlier age, had more substance-using peers, greater psychiatric and substance use severity, higher prevalence of legal problems, worse health status, and more concerns about body size and shape. Smokers first used tobacco, compared to non-smokers who first used alcohol. African American youth had lower smoking rates, Native American and Asian Americans had higher. Multivariable regression models found that smokers had greater substance use severity, initiated use at younger ages, were older, had worse health status, and more legal problems, but the other associations were no longer significant. The findings suggest that smoking cessation programs for substance abusing youth must address multiple problems.

Learning Objectives:

• 1. Recognize the problems facing adolescents with substance use problems, and how smoking status is related to them.
• 2. Understand issues around smoking cessation treatment for smoking youth with alcohol and other drug use problems.
• 3. Discuss appropriate approaches to smoking cessation with this complex population.

Keywords: Substance Abuse Treatment, Smoking

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.