group at either time point (6.6% vs
7.0% at 3 months and 16.6% vs 15.5% at
12 months). At 12-month follow-up,
both conditions produced equally high
abstinence rates in both boys and girls
(13.9% and 16.6%, respectively, in the
counseling condition; 13.2% and 15.5%,
respectively, in the information control
condition), exceeding the average abstinence
rate for treatment programs
in the recent meta-analysis (9%).11 One
interpretation of these results is that
girls needed less intensive intervention
than boys to quit and that information
with nurse contact alone was as
effective as intensive 1-on-1 counseling
in the long-term. However, we found no
gender differences in predictors of
cessation outcomes, including depression,
anxiety, confidence in quitting,
positive and negative expectations of
quitting, and perceived helpfulness of
the nurse. Also, the counseling intervention
resulted in a reduction in number
of cigarettes smoked and number
of smoking days at 3 months without
gender differences. The reason for the
gender difference in quitting is unclear
because gender differences are
not typical in adolescent smokingcessation
studies.11 In addition, it
seems the information plus nurse contact
attention control intervention may
have contributed to smoking cessation
in both genders at 12-month follow-up.
This may be because of the fact that
this condition provided information on
quitting that the smoker was able to
apply in future quit attempts. Also, this
condition provided a minimum level of
contact with the nurse along with ongoing
support from the school nurse
for their efforts to quit, which may
have been sufficient to motivate those
interested in quitting to quit within the
year. We know anecdotally from the
nurses that adolescent participants in
both conditions frequently checked in
with the nurse regarding their smoking
status, challenges, and success,
which may have contributed to the ef-
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