MyLastDip Project Detail

Many American young adults engage in the habitual use of smokeless tobacco (chew or snuff) and many wish to quit but lack resources.

Researchers at Oregon Research Institute have been awarded a research grant from the National Cancer Institute to develop and evaluate an innovative Web-based smokeless tobacco cessation intervention to the largely underserved population of young tobacco users. This program is available for free to any smokeless tobacco user aged 14-25 in the USA and Canada who is interested in quitting and willing to complete a brief survey about their tobacco use.

Internet-based interventions hold great promise to become a significant force in helping people change their health-related behaviors. A number of reports have described encouraging results for Internet interventions to quit smoking, manage diabetes, lose weight and increase exercise, and manage depression. We recently reported the results of a clinical trial in which we demonstrated that an internet cessation program for adult smokeless tobacco users was very effective and cessation rates were comparable to other methods of quitting.  Some important features of Internet-based interventions include:

• tailoring presentation of content matched to participant characteristics
• tracking—and displaying—participant’s progress over time
• using information from past sessions to shape content of subsequent sessions
• allowing participants to set their own pace and to access information at any time
• enabling participants to access a virtual community that offers helpful advice and support within an anonymous environment
• offers engaging content that teaches the user about risks of smokeless tobacco use and motivates them to quit

We believe that this web based cessation program can be an effective tool to help young chewers quit their addictive and dangerous habit. This program offers free cessation assistance to any young user who is interested in quitting.

A multifaceted participant recruitment plan will include the collaboration of state tobacco control organizations, promotion through high schools, press coverage and articles in print and electronic media, and direct marketing through websites targeted to youthful chewing tobacco users.