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Scientific Evidence
The scientific evidence proving the effectiveness of N-O-T.
The West Virginia Prevention Research Center, West Virginia University, has worked with the American Lung Association and its local offices across the United States to conduct more than 10 years of research and evaluation on the N-O-T program in Florida, New Jersey, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.
Two types of studies were used in N-O-T evaluations. For efficacy studies, the N-O-T program was set up in a scientifically controlled and standardized way. For effectiveness studies, evaluators tested how well the program works in real-world school or community settings. These studies showed that about 1 in 5 teens who participated in N-O-T succeeded in quitting smoking, and almost 75% of teens who did not quit smoking reduced their cigarette use.
The following are highlights from a study1 that combined the results of all N-O-T studies conducted from 1998 through 2003:
- Scientifically controlled efficacy studies showed end-of-program quit rates of 15% to 19%.
- Real-world effectiveness studies showed end-of-program quit rates of 27% to 31%.
- Teens who participated in N-O-T were twice as likely to quit smoking than were teens who received a brief intervention (20 minutes of advice plus widely available quit-smoking pamphlets).
- Teens who quit smoking through the N-O-T program continued not smoking for 18 months after the program ended.
- N-O-T quit rates are among the highest reported for any teen smoking cessation program. In fact, in 2006 the Cochrane Library published a review of stop-smoking programs for young people worldwide and concluded that, of all the programs, only the N-O-T program showed promise.
1 Horn K, Dino G, Goldcamp J, Kalsekar I, Mody R. The impact of Not On Tobacco on teen smoking cessation: end-of-program evaluation results, 1998-2003. Journal of Adolescent Research 2005;20(6):640-661.
